***Completed***
My attempt at the Fourth Criterion Challenge.
The time has come again for my favorite annual challenge. Year Four!
Categories:
1. Spine #351-450
2. Spine #601-700
3. Watch a film with a rating of 4.3 or higher
4. First film in your watchlist
5. Most recently added film in your watchlist
6. Longest runtime in your watchlist
7. Most popular film in your watchlist
8. Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project
9. Criterion Staff Picks
10. New York Film Festival Favorites
11. Watch a film in the Saturday Matinee series "Observations on Film Art"
12. First Films - watch a directorial debut
13. Virtually Reality
14. Random Number Generator (Google random number generator, set values from 1 to whatever number…
***Completed***
My attempt at the Fourth Criterion Challenge.
The time has come again for my favorite annual challenge. Year Four!
Categories:
1. Spine #351-450
2. Spine #601-700
3. Watch a film with a rating of 4.3 or higher
4. First film in your watchlist
5. Most recently added film in your watchlist
6. Longest runtime in your watchlist
7. Most popular film in your watchlist
8. Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project
9. Criterion Staff Picks
10. New York Film Festival Favorites
11. Watch a film in the Saturday Matinee series "Observations on Film Art"
12. First Films - watch a directorial debut
13. Virtually Reality
14. Random Number Generator (Google random number generator, set values from 1 to whatever number Criterion has listed last here. This number will change as more releases are announced so please keep up to date by using the link I have provided as I will not be updating each time Criterion makes announcements. Watch whatever movie corresponds to the spine number you are given.)
15. Technicolor
16. Women Auteurs
17. Criterion Sight and Sound
18. Dreaming of a Holiday Movie Marathon
19. Watch a Netflix Original released by Criterion
20. 100 Years of Olympic Films
21. LGBTQ+
22. Directed by Luis Buñuel
23. Directed by Mai Zetterling
24. Starring Liv Ullmann
25. Italian Neorealism
26. Hong Kong Cinema
27. Made in Brazil
28. Ari Aster’s Closet Picks
29. Yo La Tengo’s Closet Picks
30. Charlie Day’s Closet Picks
31. Michael Shannon’s Closet Picks
32. Aubrey Plaza’s Top 10
33. Anthony Bourdain’s Top 10
34. Alan Arkin’s Top 10
35. Tunde Adebimpe’s Top 10
36. Genre: Made for TV
37. Genre: Family
38. Genre: Animation
39. Genre: History
40. Guillermo del Toro’s Twitter Film recommendations
41. 1920s
42. 1930s
43. 1940s
44. 1950s
45. 1960s
46. 1970s
47. 1980s
48. 1990s
49. 2000s
50. 2010s
51. 2020s
52. Watch any Criterion film from your watchlist
Helpful Links:
The Complete Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection by Spine Number
Every Film Available on The Criterion Channel
Progress: 52/52
This challenge took from January 7, 2024 to December 5, 2024. The average score I gave for this challenge was a 3.9.
The biggest surprise was The Trial. It was The Trial really that has gotten me to start really reevaluation Citizen Kane, a film that has long held the title of greatest film of all time, and realize that Orson Welles was so much greater than that. It's such an impressive feat and I can't wait to rewatch it. The biggest disappointment was Irma Vep. I was 50/50 on Assayas before Irma Vep, having seen two of his films. I was hoping Irma Vep would fall closer to Clouds of Sils Maria, but it fell closer to Personal Shopper. It's a shame because I'm normally a sucker for films about film.
Top Three:
1. Persona
2. El Norte
3. Barry Lyndon
Bottom Three:
1. All Monsters Attack
2. The Rules of the Game
3. The Children Are Watching Us
Other Superlatives:
Best Performances: Anthony Perkins in The Trial/Liv Ullman in Persona
Worst Performances: Tomonori Yazaki in All Monsters Attack/Silvia Monfort in La Pointe Courte
Most Beautiful: Barry Lyndon
Most Thought-Provoking: Persona
Made Me Cry: El Norte
Most Fun: The Fabulous Baron Munchausen
