Yasujiro Ozu, Agnés Varda, Chantal Akerman, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Federico Fellini, Charlie Chaplin-basically, if they turn up in a History of Film textbook, it’s more than likely you’ll find a way into their work here. Showcasing some of the biggest names in film history, pulling from masters that dominate our superlative lists of both country and decade-specific cinema, the streamer is a gold mine.
HBO Max and Amazon have massive libraries that include some cinephile delights, but you could throw a digital dart into Criterion’s catalog and hit something that’ll blow your mind-and a few supplemental special features to educate its remains. The streaming side of the Criterion Collection that rose after the death of FilmStruck, The Criterion Channel is the undisputed arthouse king. If ever there was a streaming service that was delightfully difficult to pull highlights from, it’s The Criterion Channel.
