12 Classic Films to Watch on the Criterion Channel
The cinematic canon is vast and daunting, spanning decades, countries, and various runtimes. A film can be as short as a few minutes or as long as 10 hours, depending on the filmmaker and their intent. How do you even start when services like Netflix predominantly carry movies from the 1970s and on, and mostly busy themselves with their own original content? The Criterion Channel is an alternative streaming service that aims to make those cinematic staples more accessible for $11 a month. Films on the service are organized by director, style, decade, genre, and any number of small yet meaningful categories, and titles, like any other streaming service, come and go by month. To try to narrow down the best of Criterion's vast library for a list is a bit of a fool's errand, and everyone's idea of an "essential" film is different. Nonetheless, here are 12 films that this critic finds to be both essential and perfect for quarantine watching.
avg. score: 3 of 12 (26%)
required scores: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
