Criterion Channel App

Criterion Channel launched in 2019 after FilmStruck shut down, and the app organizes its catalog , and it treats film history as something you browse rather than search. Home screen features curated collections like "Agnes Varda: Complete Films" or "70s New Hollywood" alongside new releases. Each collection has a short essay by a critic or filmmaker that contextualizes why those particular movies belong together. The interface resists the algorithmic recommendation model that Netflix uses, instead relying on human editors who clearly care about the order in which films appear and the connections between them. A watch list feature lets you save titles. After a few months of using it my list has become a kind of syllabus I built for myself without realizing it. What I appreciate is that the app assumes you want to understand film as a tradition, not just find something to watch at 10pm. Playback quality reflects that seriousness with proper aspect ratios and restored transfers.