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Crit Club
by Crit Club
A podcast where four friends (Coire, Angela, Peter and Wizard Chris) discuss Criterion Channel streaming service movies we have never seen. We also love Dungeons and Dragons, so there might be some of that in there as well.
Episodes
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High and Low (1963)
The Crit Club has decided to take an extended summer vacation to Japan. This week we’re watching 1963’s High and Low from director Akira Kurosawa. It’s a procedural thriller slash morality play about class tensions, kidnapping, and detective work. When a rich man’s chauffeur’s son gets abducted,...
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Seven Weeks (2014)
Back to Japan we go as the Crit Club watches the 2014 family drama from director Nobuhiko Obayashi Seven Weeks. This epic-length movie seeks to lay out everything from generational lessons in one family, the continuing fallout of postwar Japan, and old man meditations on dying. It’s really a…
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Liquid Sky (1982)
This week, the Crit Club is on quite the drug-filled, electroclash journey as we watch the 1982 nihilistic sci fi overdose called Liquid Sky. What would it be like if orgasms attracted aliens? How would one break into the punk fashion world? What would it be like to live so close to the Empire...
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Young Soul Rebels (1991)
Happy Pride, everyone! So much love to you all. In celebration, this week the Crit Club has watched 1991’s Young Soul Rebels, a movie that explores various queer and counter cultures in late-70s England. The movie follows two friends who operate a soul music pirate radio station as they deal with...
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La Haine (1995)
This week, Crit Club returns to our home away from home: France. We watched the 1995 crime drama La Haine, which follows three young men from the Parisian slums in the day after an explosive riot that landed one of their friends in the hospital. La Haine deals with the ongoing issues of French...
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School Daze (1988)
This week, Crit Club gets a remarkable education from Spike Lee’s 1988 joint School Daze. In the vein of, and making light of, such rollicking college films as Animal House, et. al., School Daze follows various social groups at an HBCU over Homecoming weekend. They struggle with each other,...
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The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (1992)
If a Yakuza has ever threatened you into free lasagna, then this week’s Crit Club is up your alley. We watched the 1992 dark comedy The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion (aka Minbo) from director Juzo Itami. It tells the story of a group of hotel employees dedicated to ridding their hotel of…
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Certain Women (2016)
This week the Crit Club is slowing things down a little with Kelly Reichardt’s 2016 movie Certain Women. This film tells three moderately overlapping stories of women in various stages of life going through their motions in rural Montana. It’s small and quiet, like Reichardt’s other films, and we...
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Come and See (1985)
Never one to shy away from masochism, this week the Crit Club is watching the 1985 Soviet anti-war movie Come and See. This film, directed and co-written by Elem Klimov, follows a young boy as he is swept up into the hell that is war, specifically rural Belarus during the Nazi invasion of 1943....
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The Mother and the Whore (1973)
Surprise, surprise, the Crit Club is watching a French movie this week. The 1973 post-new wave drama The Mother and the Whore follows a young man named Alexandre as he talks, meets women, talks to them, and meets more. Written and directed by Jean Eustache, this movie is highly regarded as one of...
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Things to Come (1936)
This week the Crit Club is traveling way back, and way forward, in time as we watch the 1936 science fiction film Things to Come. This early special effect juggernaut is looked decades into the future with a script by H.G. Wells, and posits questions about humanity, progress, and peace. Were we...
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Ishtar (1987)
The Crit Club is a brave bunch, no stranger to tackling any movie, whatever its reputation. To prove our courage, this week we’re watching the notorious 1987 box office bomb Ishtar, written and directed by Elaine May. Its plot is a goofy buddy comedy starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as...
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In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
It’s a real date night week here at Crit Club where we’re watching the often-banned, taboo-breaking In the Realm of the Senses from 1976. From Nagisa Ōshima, this fictionalized account of a Japanese true crime incident that happened in the 1930s follows two lovers as they fall down the well of…
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3:10 to Yuma (1957)
That train whistle blowing you hear is the Crit Club hustling their way to watch 3:10 to Yuma, Delmar Daves’ classic 1957 western based on an Elmore Leonard short story (which you can read here). This compact story puts a modest rancher in an unexpected position with an infamous gang leader,...
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Dreadnaught (1981)
The Crit Club spent this week trying to ward away dread with the 1981 Hong Kong martial arts, action, comedy/horror movie Dreadnaught. This physical masterpiece tells the story of two warring schools, a sheepish launderer, and, why not, a murderous, face-painted psychopath. Directed by the...
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The 400 Blows (1959)
Bonjour mes amis! This week, the Crit Club is heading back to France, riding the first swells of that New Wave with François Truffaut’s 1959 The 400 Blows. Routinely lauded as one of the best films ever made, this small, active movie follows the adolescent discomfort of one young Antoine Doinel…
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Hearts and Minds (1974)
Crit Club here with our first documentary in a long while, with Hearts and Minds, a devastating depiction of the Vietnam War. Told in a relatively modern way, Hearts and Minds is a wide-ranging film that explores the war through D.C. insider interviews and crushing footage from the invaded…
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It's All About Love (2003)
The Crit Club is traveling through time into the distant future of 2021 with the help of the 2003 film It’s All About Love by club-fave Thomas Vinterberg. This surreal, sci-fi-esque movie revolves around the disintegrating relationship between Claire Danes and Jaoquin Phoenix amid a world of…
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Gothic (1986)
This week, the Crit Club is giving in to their inner Goth by watching Ken Russel’s 1986 Romantic-era, maximum freakout, psycho-sexual drama Gothic. This movie follows a super wholesome and fun-looking evening based ever so loosely on true events, where Lord Byron hosts Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley...
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How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)
The Crit Club is riding this wave of late stage capitalism right back to 1989 so we can learn how to better ourselves with the help of Bruce Robinson’s black comedy How to Get Ahead in Advertising. This satirical bit of consumer culture backlash examines the lengths to which the pressure of a…
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The Celebration (1998)
Deep in the heart of a brittle northern winter, four friends (the Crit Club) decide to attend a Danish 60th birthday party as we watch 1998’s The Celebration. The first of the famous (infamous?) Dogma95 movies, The Celebration has us descend on a wealthy manor for a patriarch’s special day and...
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The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Good day to everyone. The Crit Club has the heat turned up so we can kick off our shoes and watch 1954’s Golden Age drama The Barefoot Contessa. This movie examines the spectacular rise and sudden fall of a Spanish dancer as she is absorbed into increasing levels of high society. Did we dance to...
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The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Hello listeners and Happy New Year! For 2024, the Crit Club made the joint resolution to ride off on a magic carpet and never look back. To help us in that endeavor, we watched 1940’s epic fantasy adventure The Thief of Bagdad. Plucked from 1,001 Arabian Night, and subsequently used as the...
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Johnny Guitar (1954)
Howdy partners, this week the Crit Club was roped into watching the incredibly named, 1954 Joan Crawford western Johnny Guitar. It’s a psychosexual drama of bitter rivalries, NIMBY politics, and someone named the Dancin’ Kid. Come give a listen and find out whether we rode off into the sunset…
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Inland Empire (2006)
If you think Crit Club is above challenging themselves with a three-hour, near-incomprehensible dreamscape, then our watching of David Lynch’s 2006 epic Inland Empire should prove you wrong. From a Polish barbeque attended by circus performers to a nightmare sitcom starring anthropomoric rabbits,...
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Tricia's Wedding (1971)
Tis the season! The WEDDING season, that is. This week your Crit Club pals are hitchin' a ride to watch Tricia get hitched in 1971’s surrealist satire short film Tricia’s wedding lovingly staged by a coterie of irreverent drag performers. Come listen and see whether we renewed our vows to this...
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The Addiction (1995)
October might be done with us, but we’re not done with October. This week, the Crit Club is clinging on to the last vestiges of spookiness with Abel Ferrara’s 1995 vampire horror film The Addiction. This heavy film, which uses everyone’s favorite Twilight characters as a metaphor for drug...
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Hour of the Wolf (1968)
During this spooky month, the Crit Club decided to take yet another trip to an isolated location, specifically a desolate island in the north of Sweden for a chill bit of insomnia with Ingmar Bergman’s 1968 horror thriller Hour of the Wolf. This surrealist nightmare about art, existence,...
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The 51st Episode Extravaganza
They said it couldn’t be done. They swore up and down there was no way four nerds could record 50 podcast episodes about the Criterion Channel streaming service. Well, after three years and one pandemic, Crit Club is here with a 51st Episode Extravaganza to prove them all wrong. Come listen to...
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Irma Vep (1996)
Predictably, the Crit Club couldn’t stay away from France for long. This week, we joined a sloppy movie production for 1996’s Irma Vep from Olivier Assayas. This sly, meta commentary on the state of French films at the time stars Maggie Cheung playing a version of herself as she plays the titular...
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The Blue Caftan (2022)
Oh this? Why yes, the Crit Club is wearing a new immaculately tasteful and exquisitely handcrafted new movie, specifically 2022’s The Blue Caftan from writer/director Maryam Touzani. A quiet family drama of a husband and wife managing a tailor shop in Morocco, The Blue Caftan has volumes to say...
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The Wages of Fear (1953)
Your Crit Club pals are taking an extremely dangerous and existential road trip this week as we hitch a ride with 1953’s The Wages of Fear. This intense thriller from Henri-Georges Couzot tells the story of a collection of downtrodden drifters from around the world, stuck in a South American oil...
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The Shout (1978)
If you feel that brisk air blowing in, that’s just the Crit Club taking an early fall trip to the British seaside to watch the 1978 psychological thriller The Shout. When a mysterious man chooses to insert himself into the marriage of a bored rural couple with metaphysical vagaries and black…
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Deep Cover (1992)
You may not recognize your Crit Club pals this week as we go undercover to take down the drug kingpins of LA and watch 1992's Deep Cover, directed by Bill Duke, starring Laurence née Larry Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum. Come listen and see if living a life of crime appealed to us, or sent us…
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Jane B. by Agnès V. (1988)
This week, the Crit Club (Club de Critique, en francais, I would assume) becomes a fly on the wall as we watch 1988’s Jane B. by Agnès V., in which legendary filmmaker Agnès Varda sets out to tell the life story of legendary pop icon Jane Birkin. What follows is an utter dreamscape of…
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Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)
This week, the Crit Clubbers were whisked away in time and place, like four Major Toms exploring a WWII prisoner of war camp in the Pacific Theater. We watched 1983’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, a Nagisa Oshima movie about British POWs at the hands of Japanese captors on Java. Oh and it stars...
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The Comfort of Strangers (1990)
Hello Crit Clubbers! This week we’re watching 1990’s The Comfort of Strangers, directed by Paul Schrader, with a screenplay from Harold Pinter adapted from a book by Ian McEwan. It follows bored couple in a stagnant relationship trying to reignite the spark with a very laid back vacation to…
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Chan Is Missing (1982)
Hello! Crit Club is back to take a look at 1982's Chan Is Missing. It's an ambitious amalgamation of a movie that's both a detective story about two men looking for a disappeared business partner, and a exploration/celebration of the many Asian-American communities in San Francisco's Chinatown....
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Living on Tokyo Time (1987)
Aaaaand we're back! This time talking about Steven Okazaki's 1987's drama Living on Tokyo Time about a young Japanese woman trying to figure her life out in the U.S. and a disaffected Japanese-American young man doing the same. The two fall into an impromptu marriage exposing the buried desires...
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Space Is the Place (1974)
The Crit Club doesn’t want to live on this planet anymore, so we’re reading the vibrations of the 1974 experimental jazz movie Space Is the Place. Following the music, the philosophy and the interstellar aspirations of Sun Ra, Space Is the Place unfolds a cosmic story about Black identity. Sun Ra...
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Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
We’re back from holiday break in time to bring you a nice British romantic drama, aggressively titled Sunday Bloody Sunday. Sorry, The Edge fans, you won’t find any U2 here. Rather, it’s a contemplative, wry story about finding what we need from each other and from love. So basically, any U2…
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Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
That's not a rusty saxophone playing echoing through a dirty LA alleyway you hear, that's the Crit Club investigating the 1975 Dick Richards mystery movie Farewell, My Lovely. Based on the excellent Raymond Chandler book of the same name, Farewell, My Lovely follows rumpled private dick Phillip...
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Daisies (1966)
Your beloved Crit Club rises from the dregs of the previous week's watch with 1966's Daisies. This Czechoslovakian funhouse mirror of a movie from director Věra Chytilová is filled to the brim with bohemian delight and nihilistic exhibitionism. Plot-wise, you might say it follows two women named...
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Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Well, well, well, it seems like the Crit Club took their recent fascination with adult animation just a bit too far this week as we try to shake off the patina of slime that 1973's Belladonna of Sadness dipped us in. While we expected to watch an animated, mature-themed romp, fate had other,...
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Summer Hours (2008)
We're celebrating (U.S.) Thanksgiving the right way: with quiet, sad, potentially boring family time. This week, the Crit Club watched Olivier Assayas' 2008 film Summer Hours, a contemplative movie about siblings dealing with the loss of their mother. With different priorities and different...
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Watership Down (1978)
As the sun slips away earlier and earlier, it's only natural for the Crit Club to spend this time imagining what it would be like to bound through sunny British meadows like rabbits. In aid of this, we watched the 1978 animated classic Watership Down, based on the 1972 Richard Adams novel of the...
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Playtime (1967)
And Crit Club is back! We've returned from our extended summer vacation to rejoin the world of cinema, starting with Jacques Tati's 1967 spectacle of a film Playtime. Focusing on how the modern world buzzes and shines with its steel and glass, this very creative movie plays with how people…
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Equinox (1970)
Welcome to another Wizard Pick™! On this week’s Crit Club, our dear co-host Wizard Chris takes us on something of an… uneven journey with the 1970 “horror” film Equinox. Eleven years before Evil Dead, Equinox follows four friends who venture into mysterious woods to discover an ominous book and…
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Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (2017)
No longer content with sitting in one country, this week the Crit Club joined icon Grace Jones in a trip around the world. We watched Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami, which chronicles Jones recording her 2008 album Hurricane, its subsequent world tour and her visit to her family…
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A New Leaf (1971)
This week we stayed in the '70s, but moved onto comedy with Elaine May's directorial debut, A New Leaf. This riches to rags film stars a young(er) Walter Matthau scheming to wed the bookish and oblivious Henrietta, played by May, in order to reclaim his wealth. The Crit Club was somewhat divided…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Crit Club have?
Crit Club currently has 79 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Crit Club about?
A podcast where four friends (Coire, Angela, Peter and Wizard Chris) discuss Criterion Channel streaming service movies we have never seen. We also love Dungeons and Dragons, so there might be some of that in there as well.
How often does Crit Club release new episodes?
Crit Club has 79 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Crit Club?
You can listen to Crit Club on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Crit Club?
Crit Club is created and hosted by Crit Club.
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