Remember when you used to turn on the TV late at night and flip through the channels to see what was on? Remember when you saw a movie and got hooked halfway through? Maybe you don’t because you grew up with the streaming revolution, which allowed you to watch exactly what you wanted to watch, when you wanted to watch it (or at least endlessly scroll through algorithmically generated things Suggestions) The computer thinks you might want to watch).
The Criterion Channel streaming service is hoping to recapture its cinematic fortunes with the launch of Criterion 24/7, a new livestream available to all subscribers. The live stream randomly selects from the streamer's extensive collection of classic and contemporary films, from highbrow arthouse film fairs, to cult gems, to the world's best films, one after the other. You could tune in at any time and find yourself in a silent horror movie, or a French New Wave film, or maybe an unfairly ridiculed Razzie winner.
You won't know exactly what you're going to do - there's no set schedule, no grid telling you what's happening or what's going to happen next - that's the fun of it. I've long considered the Criterion Channel to be the best streaming service for cinephiles due to its strong curation and wide variety of movies, but paradoxically I often struggled to find something to watch on it because there There was so much I couldn't find. Want to see, and it's all so different. Standard 24/7 keeps my options out of the question, which is a real pleasure.
I couldn't sleep last night, so I turned on live streaming on my phone (via the Criterion Channel app) and immersed myself in a silent film about the history of witchcraft. Since I'm the kind of person who loves to read r/criterion, I immediately recognized it as Häxan , a 1922 Swedish quasi-documentary that I'd actually been meaning to watch for years. I've seen a good chunk of it now, and since I have access to the entire catalog with my subscription, I can always go back and watch it from the beginning. As I draft this article, the ending of 1992's The Player and the beginning of Jackie Chan's Police Story - two other films on my endless watch list - are playing in the background.
If you can't figure out what's playing, you can jump back up to 90 minutes in the feed, which will hopefully allow you to go back far enough to understand the title, or at least give yourself a little more context. (Alternatively, Criterion launches a feed on X that tells you what's currently playing. Personally, I love a good suspense drama.)
death of algorithm
What I love most about Criterion 24/7 is that it doesn’t involve algorithms. Criterion doesn't show me randomly selected content from my watchlist, or movies I might like to watch based on what I've watched before, or what I've read online, or based on what I accidentally clicked once Banner ads. Everyone’s stream is the same, bringing a sense of community to your individual stream experience.
Tweet may have been deleted
(As Musical Lettuce Man said on X, "The more people who watch 'Chungking Express, ' the better.")
The service is only a few days old, and I'm not the only movie fan who loves it. As expected, the response from the Letterboxd crowd was overwhelming. The only notable drawback so far is that the stream doesn't have subtitles (although any non-English movie has subtitles), and I couldn't sit and watch it all day.
