The 2025 Criterion Challenge (First Half)

My third attempt at completing the Criterion Challenge is now at its midpoint. What stands out?

For those of you not on the excellent social platform Letterboxd, I highly recommend it. There’s areas to improve it (discovery is hard; it’s not always intuitive), but at the end of the day it’s a great, positive place to talk about movies and cinema culture. There’s not really a blogging feature, but it’s great to see what people you know are watching and their quick thoughts on whatever it is.

But within the larger community there’s all sorts of little challenges people set up as they broaden their cinematic knowledge. It can be to see one movie from every year dating back a hundred years or an effort to see some horror movies. Anything, really. As I was gearing up to watch one movie per day for an entire year (and panicking about having to come up with 365 varied options), one came across my path. The Criterion Challenge.

For those unfamiliar, the Criterion Collection is an organization dedicated to preserving and releasing cinema’s important or significant films. Some of their releases can be contemporary (they announced Anora as entering the Collection just before it went on to clean up at this year’s Oscars), but they pull from the entire world across the history of the medium. To date there’s more than 1200 installments in the collection (some collecting multiple themed releases like a giant Godzilla set) and there’s no signs of stopping. To be in the Collection is significant in film circles, like a stamp of approval from people who hold a high standard. It says this piece of art matters and we want to make sure it stands the test of time.

The Criterion Challenge started as one dude’s attempt to broaden his horizons. There’s all sorts of categories to make sure you’re not just sticking to stuff in your comfort zone (here’s my challenges from 2023 and 2024 to get an idea). And… man if I haven’t seen a cornucopia of films in my two and a half challenges that I absolutely never would have otherwise seen. It’s not all hits. God no. But there’s wonderful nuggets that make it something I’m going to keep doing for like… ever.

The 2025 Challenge… So Far…

One of the stipulations of the Challenge is that you can watch your movies in any order. My paranoia around finishing means I try to get all my watching done in the first half of the year. It works out to about one film every Saturday and Sunday, and that should wrap me by the end of June. Ish.

This year being my third year, I’ve found my selections of film has evolved from that first year. I try to make sure I’m seeing stuff from areas like South America, Africa, and the Middle East so I’m not just watching a half dozen Kurosawa films (nice as that sounds). I also try not to repeat any directors if possible, and if I have the opportunity to do one miniseries or some equivalent, I include one if I can. There’s also directors who I’ve previously watched who I try to also squeeze in if I can (the one this year was John Cassavetes). And then, of course, there’s the odd enigmatic poster/cover image I keep seeing of certain movies that stick in my mind. This year, that’s Wanda, which I’ll be watching in the next few months.

Anyways. For all you process junkies, there’s a taste of what I go through as I spend hours cultivating my choices.

So what’s standing out so far…?

The average so far is a bit lower than the rest of the year is going to be. I’m big on delayed gratification, so I try to start with a couple I’m quite excited about and then frontload all the ones that I’m less interested in or worried about. Inevitably, there’s always one movie a year that I can appreciate the quality of but that puts me in a deep dark place due to its content and subject matter. In 2023 it was Dog Bites Man (1992), a dark comedy mockumentary about a degenerate criminal who casually commits violence, murder, and other horrific acts. In 2024 it was The Seventh Continent (1989), a film that’s just two hours of gazing into the abyss. This year, I’m hoping it’s Happiness (1998), because I can’t imagine anything bleaker than that.

It’s not all bad, though.

Mulholland Drive (2002) (Watch a film from the Criterion Channel’s All Time Favorites List) - David Lynch’s reputation for the weirdness and the bizarre and the borderline macabre put me off watching his work. My “I’m watching all the movies covered by the podcast Unspooled” set me on a collision course (and then he won the 2023 Blank Check March Madness and it was all over). This is the quintessential Lynch, a dream-like trip through Hollywood. I had no idea I was always going to love this, fascinated as I am by narratives that have their own inherent logic and weaving structure. No one is better at this than Lynch, and the extreme discomfort that comes from staring directly at a genius’s subconscious is part of the joy.

Personal Shopper (2016) (2010s)- Maybe I just really like weird movies, but this ghost story about a personal shopper by trade and a ghost-hunting medium by calling ruminates on the lingering emotional devastation of her brother’s death. Like Mulholland Drive, it’s offputting, though hardly the same. Stories with this sort of weirdness, speak to me. As I’ve gotten older, a director’s voice being a focused, attuned, and internally consistent beam of strange helps feed my insatiable desire to see things that are fresh and new. And also Kristen Stewart is astonishing. God I love her in everything.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002) (A film that will be added to the physical collection in 2025) - One of two “serious” Adam Sandler-led comic dramas to come out of the early 00’s. I’ve always conflated this with Spanglish (the other), but where that movie is bad, this one is really fantastic. Until recently, the only Paul Thomas Anderson film I’d seen was There Will Be Blood, but Anderson is on this year’s short list of finish-this-director’s-filmography. PTA an incredible craftsman, and his complete mastery of tone here proves why he’s one of the great filmmakers of the now.

Blow-Out (1981) (Noir and Neonoir) - Been trying to get to more Da Palma, and this was fabulous. It’s a movie still firmly in conversation with the paranoid thrillers of the 70s, his own riff on The Conversation. But Travolta is fabulous in this, maybe the best I’ve ever seen him. The utter cynicism at the film’s rotted core is delicious. Definitely a standout, and one that would have taken me forever to see were it not for this Challenge.

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) (Watch a film that would be your first selection in the Closet) - I’m too hard on Rob Reiner. For all that I love The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men, and When Harry Met Sally…, his films have a way of feeling static and flat. That, I think, is my problem, though. Directors don’t have to be Scorsese-dynamic to be good, nor the the pop-kerblam of Tarantino. Good directing is more than composition, and Reiner’s hit rate with those three films alone is enough that I should count him as a great director. That said between that and an indifference to Christopher Guests’s improv mockumentaries (they’re great, I just never think about them) I probably wouldn’t have watched this otherwise (hence the category: I would have shown it to get people off my back). But god this was good. So funny. So clever. And the entire Stonehenge sequence had me cackling.

Anatomy of a Murder (1959) (Criterion Releases Never Picked for the Closet) - Anytime I get a James Stewart movie it’s a delight, and this is a fabulous counterpoint to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He’s older and this is a lot of him giving good speeches and trying to do the right thing in a place of law. The thing I loved most was the way the first half concerns itself with the lead-up to the trial itself, what with Lee Remick (who is so gorgeous in this oh my god) playing this strange, enigmatic woman who’s hard to get a read on. It’s engaging in ways that should make it feel like a drag (get to the trial!), but when it was over and the trial was in full swing (and very good!), I found myself wanting the movie to go back to the weird flirtation between Stewart and Remick as they navigate their strange relationship.

Any other recommendations?

After two and a half years of doing this, there are lots of movies I keep thinking about and coming back to. If you’re in the mood for something here are eight more. And I’ll limit myself to four from each year (okay fine, five, but two sets are double features). Gosh this will be hard.

The Last Command (1928) (2024 - 1920s) - This is probably because I still have deep, lingering affection for the AP European History class I took in 10th Grade, but this was a fantastic look at the Russian Revolution through the prism of an ex-Tsarist working as an extra on a film set… one being directed by a former Bolshevik. The middle felt a little soggy (I usually find that with silent films), but the last 20 minutes of this were gripping and incredible and I was talking about it for days. Helps to know the Russian Revolution, though. Your mileage may vary.

Ikiru (1952) (2023 - Alicia Monroe’s Closet Picks) - An Akira Kurosawa masterpiece. Despite my dad’s insistence that the non-samurai films of Kurosawa are boring and not worth the time (he loves the samurai films, and rightly so!), this quiet film about an old man who wants to build a small community park is utterly devastating. Because of the image on the poster, I knew what the last scene was going to be and yet I was inconsolable on the couch, bawling my eyes out as Kurosawa did that slow pan for his iconic shot. God it’s good.

Tokyo Olympiad (1965) (2024 - 100 years of Olympic Film) - Not usually a documentary guy, and this three hour recap of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics might seem like overkill, but it’s a banner piece of film history. The direction focuses on the athletes, who they are, and the physical condition of their bodies has defined how we cover the Olympics. Also I think it’s the dude who ran the Marathon for Great Britain had a day job as a dentist? Man how times have changed.

Nashville (1975) (2023 - Bong Joon Ho’s Top Ten) - Not a huge folk music fan at all, but Robert Altman’s sprawling epic about a folk music festival kicks ass in so many ways. It’s everything that’s great about Altman directing a great cast playing fabulous characters, and a nice, cynical post-Watergate “America sucks, doesn’t it?” ending. While watching A Complete Unknown last year this was the only movie I could think about.

Paris, Texas (1984) (2023 - Films to Fall Asleep To) - Don’t let the category fool you. This is riveting. Now… it takes a bit to get there. It’s one of the most slow burn movies I’ve ever seen, taking almost two hours to get to the point. But all that setup is incredible when you get to the last sequence as it all comes together. It’s also the rare Harry Dean Stanton lead role and he really shows just how much he’s capable of. This is my go-to Criterion rec. But… again, you have to have the patience that it’s going to pay off. Incredible reward if you do.

Vanya on 42nd Street Drive My Car (1994) (2023 - Laurie Anderson’s Closet Picks) / Drive My Car (2021) (2023 - 2010s) - This is a double feature that came about totally randomly. I happened to mention watching Vanya on 42nd Street to a friend (hi Chris!) and he mentioned that Drive My Car (which I was already planning on watching because of the Challenge) is based around the Chekov play Uncle Vanya (of which 42nd Street is a direct adaptation/performance). Watching them back to back was amazing, as it helped me connect directly with that newer film. A wonderful experience.

Secrets & Lies (1996) (2024 - New York Film Festival Favorites) - I’ve not seen a lot of Mike Leigh’s movies, but he has a reputation for creating incredible characters with incredible actors. And that’s all this is. His story of two women connecting (where one is the long-lost daughter of the other, given away at birth) is the perfect antidote to blockbuster filmmaking. Now I love big populist blockbusters and big budget movies, but if anyone ever were to ask me what film to watch if they wanted to dip their toe into smaller, more personal films, this is one of the few I would point them to. It’s the potent power of cinema without ever doing anything earth shattering.

In the Mood For Love (2000) (2024 - A Film with a Rating of 4.3 or Higher) / 2046 (2004) (2024 - Hong Kong Cinema) - This is a cheat because I didn’t watch these as a double feature, but Wong Kar Wai made these two love stories basically back to back as weird mirror reflections of each other. His earlier film is probably his most quintessential, but because of that I’d recommend 2046 first. That’s how I did it and it helped me appreciate it for what it is rather than just a B-side of stray thoughts that didn’t make it into In the Mood for Love.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas for what to watch when you’re lost…

And who knows? Maybe this’ll make you think about some other weird film challenge that gets you out of your comfort zone. I’m an evangelist. Film is an ocean and I’m currently pretty deep, but there really is no bottom. So much good, weird, interesting stuff is out there. Just gotta get exposed to it.

And I’m currently listening to…

This post brought to you by Four by Beyoncé. Going to see her in concert at the end of the month and I’m trying to plug the massive knowledge gap so I’m not just hanging out in the wind when she starts playing hits that make the arena SCREAM with the first few notes.

Good album!

Also on this week’s Scriptnotes with Tony Gilroy they talked extensively about Andor and my god I have to go do a rewatch before it’s back in a few weeks.

Would love to hear from you!

If you have any recommended picks that are in the Criterion Collection, I’d love to hear them. If you watch any of the ones I’ve listed or watched, would love to hear your thoughts on them as well.

Onward!