Criterion Month Day 30: Sentimental Value

Sentimental Value (2025)

I don’t know how adults do it. Every single day, you gotta find time to work, exercise, clean, make food, have hobbies, maintain relationships… so much, and it’s every day. I’m already someone who watches maybe one or two movies a week, the disruption of having to watch 10 extra films and write 10 blog posts in a month should be pretty minimal. And yet I maintain such a delicate balance that by the end of July, I’m all out of whack. And I just have myself and an adorable cat to take care of! Imagine having a spouse and kids and more! Ugh. No wonder there are so many stories about deadbeat dads.

Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 29: The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent (2025)

Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent may have been smuggled into American cinemas late last year but it really had its cover blown this winter when it triggered considerable awards attention. At the Golden Globes it won Best Actor — Drama and Best Foreign Language Film and became the first Brazilian film to be nominated for Best Picture — Drama. At the 98th Academy Awards (which, by the way, have you started to think about how insufferable the 100th Oscars are going to be?) it earned four nominations, although it didn’t win any. While it may seem like a coup, once you see it, you can’t notice it has many of the hallmarks of the kinds of movies the Academy adores in the 21st Century – especially, and unfortunately, fellow 2025 critical darling One Battle After Another (with a tasteful splash of No Country For Old Men).

Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 28: Flow

Flow (2024)

So I end my Criterion Month journey in a somewhat unfamiliar place, seeing as animation is not exactly the Criterion Collection’s forté. The only animated film I can remember ever reviewing for Criterion Month is the insane Fantastic Planet, but maybe there have been others. Either way, Flow was one of those rare cases where an international film crosses over to be a worldwide hit just because the amount of care put into it is undeniable. Also, it just has a built-in cross-over appeal because it’s not encumbered by a language barrier, seeing as all of the dialogue in the film comes in the form of meows, woofs, and squawks.

Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 27: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

A few weeks ago, I read John Cameron Mitchell was taking his film Hedwig and the Angry Inch on a tour of screenings for the film’s 25th anniversary. I wish I’d gone, but it’s tough going into something cold that’s been celebrated by so many people for so many years. Are fans going to sing along? Are there Rocky Horror Picture Show-esque traditions I need to know about?

I once took a film class where we watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and one guy did all the audience participation bits along with the movie. It was one of the most embarrassing movie-watching experiences I’ve ever had. On the other hand, I love it when films build a sense of community, especially when it’s a community of outsiders. And there’s no bigger outsider than Hedwig Robinson.

Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 26: Lone Star

Lone Star (1996)

For the longest time, I’d only ever seen two John Sayles movies. My first, weirdly enough, was the 2004 political satire Silver City, starring Chris Cooper as an inept Republican running for governor of Colorado. My dad thought it looked funny, this was the peak of the Daily Show, after all, but the film turned out to be far more serious and complex than my underdeveloped teenage brain was prepared for.

The second John Sayles movie I saw was what I imagine is his best-known film, Eight Men Out, about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Everybody likes a solid baseball movie, and it had some big names for the time, including John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, Christopher Lloyd, and John Mahoney.

And now I’ve seen three John Sayles movies. So what do I think?

Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 25: Boyz n the Hood

Boyz n the Hood (1991)

Film critics, especially the kind that make Important Lists, typically overcorrect for recency bias, which I respect. You can never be too sure something that seems groundbreaking now will still feel that way in a generation, and it’s just as easily to dismiss something that ends up being iconic. This Criterion Month I’ve been thinking about François Truffaut a lot and the importance of his debut, The 400 Blows. A towering achievement, especially as a directorial debut, Truffaut’s coming-of-age story is often discussed as one of the greatest films of all time.

Boyz n the Hood is older now than The 400 Blows was when Boyz n the Hood came out in 1991. I think that’s why Criterion recently released his Hood Trilogy box set, enough time has passed that you can talk about both these movies in the same breath. But what do I know? I just saw it. Maybe it’s too soon for me to be making declarations.

Continue reading →

Criterion Month Day 24: Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch (1991)

Today marks the 12th time this site has covered David Cronenberg, who kids today might know from his chilling monologue on the latest Charli XCX album. Why do we feel the need to keep picking and prodding at the King of Body Horror and his many oozing orifices? One, because Canada’s favorite son has a whopping eight films in the Criterion Collection, and two, he makes a lot of creepy crawlies well suited for Shocktober every fall.

Continue reading →