The Criterion Project

With Rachel wrapping up her project to review every movie in the AFI 100 Years... 100 Passions list, we decided to take a look at this fun but kind of baffling list and pick out some of our favorite movies. What criterion has been used to rank these love stories? It's hard to say! Movies discussed in this episode: Beauty and the Beast The Bridges of Madison County It Happened One Night Make Wa...

Conrado and Rachel talk about RAGING BULL, the dark and violent biography of boxer Jake LaMotta, played in a transformative performance by Robert De Niro. Directed by the great Martin Scorsese, it has been praised by many critics as one of the best movies ever made. Follow us on itunes and leave you ratings and reviews: ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-criterion-project/id147995390...

In this special Oscar episode, we not only give out predictions of which movies will win awards at next Sunday's ceremony, but we also recommend a similar movie to each of the Best Picture nominees! Movies discussed in this episode include: Bamboozled Certified Copy Enchanted Princess Cyd There Will Be Blood Phantom Thread The Aviator In the Mood for Love Female Trouble The Act of Killing Foll...

Rachel and Conrado talk about DEFENDING YOUR LIFE: written, directed and starring the great Albert Brooks. In this fantasy rom-com, a neurotic man dies and finds himself in "Judgment City", where he will have to mount a legal defense for having lived a good and worthy life. Also starring Meryl Streep, Lee Grant, and a hilarious Rip Torn as the protagonist's defense attorney. Follow u...

Conrado and Rachel are joined by Collin Brinkmann, author of Intimate Impressions: The Cinema of James Gray — the first monograph / critical biography on James Gray in English - to talk about Gray's second feature THE YARDS, a mournful crime saga starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix and Charlize Theron. We talk about what makes Gray special, why he's so underrated as a filmmaker, and th...

Rachel and Conrado are joined by filmmaker Abie Sidell to talk about INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, the Coen Brothers' anti-epic starring Oscar Isaac as a prickly folk musician trying to make it in early sixties Greenwich Village. Watch Abie Sidell's CRAM now on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/712946/cram Watch Matt Farley's LOCAL LEGENDS: https://www.amazon.com/Local-Legends-Matt-Farley/dp/B07L...

Happy New Year! We're back with a regular episode of the podcast, with a forgotten Christmas gem from Frank Capra. MEET JOHN DOE was meant to be the "Mr. Deeds of 1941", but instead is a much more fascinating movie in which Barbara Stanwyck inadvertently molds Gary Cooper into the most popular and inspiring man in America. Follow us on itunes and leave you ratings and reviews: ⁠⁠http...

Rachel and Conrado recommend some of their favorite movies of the year, in particular the ones that you might not have heard about yet! Discussed in this episode: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Country Gold Mars Express Master Gardener Prom Pact Totem Follow us on itunes and leave you ratings and reviews:  ⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-criterion-project/id1479953904⁠⁠ Follo...

Rachel and Conrado run through their thoughts on an assortment of new releases, most of them playing in a theater near you! Plus: did Conrado correctly predict what would be Rachel's favorite movies of 2023? Movies covered in this episode: The Holdovers The Killer Killers of the Flower Moon Maestro May December Napoleon Nyad Poor Things Priscilla Rustin Follow us on itunes and leave you rating...

Conrado and Rachel are joined by their great friend Trevor Wallace to talk about the movies they saw at the New York Film Festival! Movies covered in this episode: The Beast The Delinquents Eureka Fallen Leaves Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell Janet Planet La Chimera Maestro The Night Visitors Perfect Days The Settlers Strange Way of Life The Sweet East The Taste of Things The Zone of Interest Follo...

Rachel and Conrado end their much needed hiatus with a conversation about some classics they've been able to catch on the big screen, including the pinnacle of summer blockbusters (Jurassic Park), two Spike Lee joints (Malcolm X and 25th Hour), and a handful of Disney movies (Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, and others). Follow us on itunes and leave you ratings and reviews:  https://podcasts....

Rachel and Conrado talk about Criterion exclusive premiere GODLAND, a historical drama by Icelandic filmmaker Hyldur Palmason. Inspired by the real discovery of a buried chest full of 19th century photographs of the Icelandic landscape and its people, the movie imagines the life of the Danish priest who embarked in a remote journey and took these photographs. Follow us on itunes and leave you rati...

Conrado and Rachel talk about GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, directed by Howard Hawks and starring Jane Russell and the legendary Marilyn Monroe. They also have brief conversations about Yasujiro Ozu's TOKYO STORY, Wes Anderson's ASTEROID CITY, as well as new raunchy comedies NO HARD FEELINGS and JOY RIDE. Follow us on itunes and leave you ratings and reviews:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/pod...

Rachel and Conrado take on 'Modern Romance' the second movie directed by comedian Albert Brooks, who stars as himself as a neurotic and possessive film editor trapped in a toxic relationship of his own making. What will happen when Rachel, the queen of rom-coms is confronted with Brooks's decidedly anti-romantic comedy? Find out in this episode! Follow us on itunes and leave you rating...

We start the fifth season of The Criterion Project by talking about The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), one of the most acclaimed movies in the history of Spanish cinema. Set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, the movie follows a small girl named Ana who becomes fascinated with the mysteries of life and death after attending a screening of James Whale's Frankenstein. This was the debut f...

Iggy Cortez and Ian Fleishman are the editors of ' Performative Opacity in the Work of Isabelle Huppert ', an essay collection about the iconic French actress and her enigmatic performance style. They join Rachel and Conrado to talk about THINGS TO COME, an unassumingly profound movie, written and directed by Mia Hansen-Love, that finds Huppert giving a brilliant and unusually warm perform...

Watch CRAM⁠⁠ , the new horror movie directed and produced by friends of the show Abie Sidell and Trevor Wallace:  ⁠⁠https://tubitv.com/movies/712946/cram⁠⁠ In this very special episode of the podcast, Conrado and Rachel are joined by their good friends and excellent filmmakers Abie and Trevor to talk about their favorite horror movies! Some of the movies mentioned in this episode include: Jaws, Bl...

Conrado and Rachel are joined by Eric McDonough (of The Movie Shelf podcast) to talk about Jean Renoir's GRAND ILLUSION, a War World I prison escape movie that was, for a long time, considered one of the best movies ever made. Its status seems to have receded considerably in the last couple decades, but that doesn't make it any less influential, or any less entertaining. Roger Ebert's...

If you had to pick just one memory to encapsulate your whole life, what would you choose?  Rachel and Conrado finally get to talking about Hirokazu Koreeda the celebrated Japanese filmmaker who has been mentioned on this podcast countless times but hasn't been the subject of an episode up until now! We are talking about AFTER LIFE, his evocative take on what happens when we die.  Startin...

We are joined by culture writer and critic Murtada Elfadl to talk about BLACK GIRL, the breakthrough film for director Ousmane Sembene, who is widely regarded as the "father of African cinema." Being the first Sub-Saharan African film to make a splash on the world stage, the movie was also a breakthrough for African cinema as a whole. This radical tale of a young Senegalese woman who immigrates to...

We celebrate Valentine's Day with Rachel's pick PILLOW TALK, a romantic comedy classic starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day as a two people caught in the no longer relevant dilemma of having to share a telephone land-line even though they're complete strangers! This technicolor, cinemascope spectacular also features Thelma Ritter and Tony Randall in supporting roles.  Follow us on itunes and le...

Conrado and Rachel are both surprised and bowled over by TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942), a screwball comedy satire from master director Ernst Lubitsch, whose famous touch extends to pulling off setting one of the most intricate and funny farces of classic Hollywood in Nazi-occupied Poland - in a movie released at the height of World War II nonetheless! Starring the wonderful Carole Lombard in her last...

Rachel and Conrado return to the world of animation to talk about PERSEPOLIS, Marjan Satrapi's adaptation of her own autobiographical graphic novel about growing up during the Iranian Revolution. Follow us on itunes and leave you ratings and reviews: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-criterion-project/id1479953904 Follow us on anchor https://anchor.fm/criterionproject Follow our twitter at...

In this episode, we welcome in the new year by looking back at some of the best movies we watched in 2022. We each pick six movies, both old and new, that we love, and most importantly, think should would make great additions to the Criterion Collection. Some of the movies talked about in this episode include: Apollo 10 1/2, Pillow Talk, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, and Michael Bay's Ambulance.&...

Conrado has been high on Soccer fever with the World Cup going on this month, so we take a look at SHAOLIN SOCCER, the kung fu sports comedy from Hong Kong superstar Stephen Chow. And since we're on the topic, we talk about Roger Ebert's infamous review of the movie, which was an important item in Conrado's development as a film critic/lover.  Follow us on itunes and leave you ratings and rev...