May on the Criterion Channel will be good to the auteurs. In fact they’re giving Richard Linklater better treatment than the distributor of his last film, with a 13-title retrospective mixing usual suspects—the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Slacker—with some truly off the beaten track. There’s a few shorts I haven’t seen (Fire Ted Cruz, Another Day at the Office, Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor) but most intriguing is Heads I Win/Tails You Lose, the only available description of which calls it a four-hour (!) piece “edited together by Richard Linklater in 1991 from film countdowns and tail leaders from films submitted to the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas from 1987 to 1990. It is Linklater’s tribute to the film countdown, used by many projectionists over the years to cue one reel of film after another when switching to another reel on another projector during projection.” Pair that with 2008’s Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach and your completionism will be on-track.
Then there’s an 11-film look at Tampopo director Juzo Itami, 13 features starring Ida Lupino, 10 starring Jean Gabin, and a handful of Criterion Collection Editions: Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), The Parallax View, Charade, High Sierra, and The Last Waltz.
See the full list of May titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
’night, Mother, Tom Moore, 1986*
A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater, 2006
Abar, the First Black Superman, Frank Packard, 1977
Action in the North Atlantic, Lloyd Bacon, 1943
The Alchemist Cookbook, Joel Potrykus, 2016
Another Day at the Office, Richard Linklater, 2019
Ape, Joel Potrykus, 2012
Banana Split, Kip Fulbeck, 1991
Bernie, Richard Linklater, 2011*
The Big Knife, Robert Aldrich, 1955
Bittersweet Survival, J. T. Takagi and Christine Choy, 1982
Bontoc Eulogy, Marlon Fuentes, 1995
Buzzard, Joel Potrykus, 2014
Charade, Stanley Donen, 1963
Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Robert Altman, 1982
Coonskin, Ralph Bakshi, 1975
A Cry in the Dark, Fred Schepisi, 1988
The Dead, John Huston, 1987
Dolemite, D’Urville Martin, 1975
Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater, Gabe Klinger, 2013
Down a Dark Stairwell, Ursula Liang, 2020
Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri, 2020
Falling in Love, Ulu Grosbard, 1984
A Family Portrait, Joseph Pierce, 2009
A Few Miles South, Ben Pearce, 2021
Fire Ted Cruz, Richard Linklater, 2018
Five Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, 2011
Frances, Graeme Clifford, 1982
Fresh Kill, Shu Lea Cheang, 1994
From Spikes to Spindles, Christine Choy, 1976
The Hard Way, Vincent Sherman, 1943
Heads I Win/Tails You Lose, Richard Linklater, 1991
High Sierra, Raoul Walsh, 1941*
History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Rea Tajiri, 1991
Hold Back the Dawn, Mitchell Leisen, 1941
Homes Apart: Korea, J.T. Takagi & Christine Choy, 1991
Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach, Richard Linklater, 2008
The Jackie Robinson Story, Alfred E. Green, 1950*
Kelly Loves Tony, Spencer Nakasako, 1998
The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese, 1978
Le navire Night, Marguerite Duras, 1979
Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor, Richard Linklater, 2003
Lord Shango, Ray Marsh, 1975
Lust for Gold, S. Sylvan Simon, 1949
The Man I Love, Raoul Walsh, 1947
Marguerite as She Was, Dominique Auvray, 2003
Me and Orson Welles, Richard Linklater, 2008*
Melons (At a Loss), Patty Chang, 1998
Mississippi Triangle, Christine Choy, Worth Long, and Allan Siegel, 1983
A Monkey in Winter, Henri Verneuil, 1962
Moontide, Archie Mayo, 1942
Murphy’s Romance, Martin Ritt, 1985
The Newton Boys, Richard Linklater, 1998
Out of the Fog, Anatole Litvak, 1941
The Parallax View, Alan J. Pakula, 1974
Peter and the Farm, Tony Stone, 2016
Peter Ibbetson, Henry Hathaway, 1935
Petey Wheatstraw, Cliff Roquemore, 1977
Picture Bride, Kayo Hatta, 1994*
The Point, Fred Wolf, 1971
Radiance, Naomi Kawase, 2017*
Raggedy Man, Jack Fisk, 1981*
Relaxer, Joel Potrykus, 2018
Resurrection, Daniel Petrie, 1980*
Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny, Louis Black and Karen Bernstein, 2016
Sally’s Beauty Spot, Helen Lee, 1990
Sea in the Blood, Richard Fung, 2000
The Sea Wolf, Michael Curtiz, 1941
Shopping for Fangs, Quentin Lee and Justin Lin, 1997
Something Wild, Jonathan Demme, 1986
Still the Water, Naomi Kawase, 2014
Strawberry Fields, Rea Tajiri, 1997
SubUrbia, Richard Linklater, 1996
Surname Viet Given Name Nam, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, 1989
Sweet Bean, Naomi Kawase, 2015
Tape, Richard Linklater, 2001
Terminal USA, Jon Moritsugu, 1993
The Trained Chinese Tongue, Laurie Wen, 1994
The Trouble With Angels, Ida Lupino, 1966
They Drive by Night, Raoul Walsh, 1940
Thing from the Factory by the Field, Joel Potrykus, 2022
Trick Baby, Larry Yust, 1972*
True Mothers, Naomi Kawase, 2020
Violets Are Blue . . . , Jack Fisk, 1986
Voices of the Morning, Meena Nanji, 1992
Wait Until Dark, Terence Young, 1967
While the City Sleeps, Fritz Lang, 1956
Willie Dynamite, Gilbert Moses, 1973*
Woman in Hiding, Michael Gordon, 1950*
Women’s Prison, Lewis Seiler, 1955
Yentl, Barbra Streisand, 1983
**Available in the U.S. only