If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy (Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Seven Weeks, and Hanagatami) four by Sara Driver (You Are Not I, Sleepwalk, When Pigs Fly, The Bowery), and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice, Young Soul Rebels, and Shaihu Umar make their streaming debuts.
See the full list below and more at the Criterion Channel:
95 and 6 to Go, Kimi Takesue, 2016
a.k.a. Don Bonus, Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny, 1995
Adaptation., Spike Jonze, 2002
Amélie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001
The Apartment, Billy Wilder, 1960
Artists and Models, Frank Tashlin, 1955*
Being There, Hal Ashby, 1979
Bernie, Richard Linklater, 2011*
Bold Eagle, Whammy Alacazaren, 2022
Bonjour Tristesse, Otto Preminger, 1958
Born Yesterday, George Cukor, 1950
The Bowery, Sara Driver, 1994
Brainstorm, William Conrad, 1965
The Breaking Ice, Anthony Chen, 2023
The Bridge on the River Kwai, David Lean, 1957
Bringing Out the Dead, Martin Scorsese, 1999*
Bye Bye Africa, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 1999
Can-Can, Walter Lang, 1960
Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2012
The Chase, Arthur Penn, 1966
The Children’s Hour, William Wyler, 1961
Cleaners, Glenn Barit, 2019
Death in Venice, Luchino Visconti, 1971
Dikit, Gabriela Serrano, 2021
Don’t Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, 1973
First Person Plural, Deann Borshay Liem, 2000
For My Alien Friend, Jet Leyco, 2019
From Here to Eternity, Fred Zinnemann, 1953
Gambit, Ronald Neame, 1966*
Girl, Interrupted, James Mangold, 1999
Go, Doug Liman, 1999
The Gossips of Cicadidae, Vahn Leinard Pascual, 2022
Guarding Tess, Hugh Wilson, 1994
Hair Piece: A Film For Nappy Headed People, Ayoka Chenzira, 1984
Hanagatami, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2017
Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell, 2001
HERadventure, Ayoka Chenzira, 2014
Hito, Stephen Lopez, 2023
The Honey Pot, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1967
i get so sad sometimes, Trishtan Perez, 2021
The Insider, Michael Mann, 1999
I Was Born, But . . ., Roddy Bogawa, 2004
In Cold Blood, Richard Brooks, 1967
In the Rivers of Mercy Angst, Ayoka Chenzira, 1997
Irma la Douce, Billy Wilder, 1963
It’s Raining Frogs Outside, Maria Estela Paiso, 2021
Italian for Beginners, Lone Scherfig, 2000*
Lilith, Robert Rossen, 1964
A Little Romance, George Roy Hill, 1979
The Lure and the Lore, Ayoka Chenzira, 1988
Madame Sousatzka, John Schlesinger, 1988*
The Manchurian Candidate, John Frankenheimer, 1962
MOTV (My Own TV), Ayoka Chenzira, 1993
My America . . . or Honk if You Love Buddha, Renee Tajima-Pena, 1997
Fisting: Never Tear Us Apart, Whammy Alacazaren, 2018
No Data Plan, Miko Revereza, 2019
Nothing but a Man, Michael Roemer, 1964
OctoGod, Shievar Olegario, 2019
Oh, Saigon, Doan Hoang, 2007
On the Waterfront, Elia Kazan, 1954
Once Upon a Time in America, Sergio Leone, 1984
The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir, Shirley MacLaine and Claudia Weill, 1975
Picnic, Joshua Logan, 1955
The Plot Against Harry, Michael Roemer, 1971
Point Blank, John Boorman, 1967
Postcards from the Edge, Mike Nichols, 1990
Pressure Point, Hubert Cornfield, 1962
Pretty Poison, Noel Black, 1968
Pull Your Head to the Moon: Stories of Creole Women, Ayoka Chenzira and David Roussève, 1992
A Raisin in the Sun, Daniel Petrie, 1961
the river that never ends, JT Trinidad, 2022
Rocks in a Windless Wadi, EJ Gagui, 2022
Seconds, John Frankenheimer, 1966
Seven Weeks, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2014
Shaihu Umar, Adamu Halilu, 1976
Sleepwalk, Sara Driver, 1986
When Pigs Fly, Sara Driver, 1993
Snowfire, Ayoka Chenzira, 1994
Somewhere a Destination, Celeste Lapida, 2021
The Straight Story, David Lynch, 1999*
Suddenly, Last Summer, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1959
Summer of Sam, Spike Lee, 1999
Sweet Charity, Bob Fosse, 1969*
Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum, Ayoka Chenzira, 1979
Targets, Peter Bogdanovich, 1968
Trick, Jim Fall, 1999
The Trouble with Harry, Alfred Hitchcock, 1955
Twinsters, Samantha Futerman and Ryan Miyamoto, 2015
Uptight, Jules Dassin, 1968
Vengeance Is Mine, Michael Roemer, 1984
What a Way to Go!, J. Lee Thompson, 1964
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Robert Aldrich, 1962
When I Walk, Jason DaSilva, 2013
Who’s Going to Pay for These Donuts Anyway?, Janice Tanaka, 1992
Williamswood, Ayoka Chenzira, 1992
Wisdom Gone Wild, Rea Tajiri, 2022
You Are Not I, Sara Driver, 1981
Young Soul Rebels, Isaac Julien, 1991
Zajota and the Boogie Spirit, Ayoka Chenzira, 1989
*Available in the U.S. only