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

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