Filmstruck / Criterion Channel

The film streaming service from TCM & Criterion Collection goes live in 13 days — October 19th.
$6.99/month for the basic service, $10.99/month (or $99/year) for Filmstruck + Criterion Channel

Who's in?

looks good that they have the commentaries, extras etc of Criterion discs, or at least some of that kind of content. i hope this won't mean the end of the Criterion blu rays. i'm expecting 'that market' will always want the 36 page books and fancy packaging and such. i know i will.

http://www.filmstruck.com/

I'm in.

i wonder why the TCM lot and the Criterion gang decided to get into bed together. i mean Criterion doesn't seem like an obvious match for Ted 'Colourization' Turner.

Turner hasn't been involved in years...? TCM is a pretty good channel. Have they ever shown a colorized film?

Cons: US only, no Roku support at launch, extreme vagueness (how many films? "HUNDREDS of films!")

But I'll sign up, at least for a few months.

I'll wait to start until Criterion joins up in November. I'll drop the $99 for their catalog alone.

Criterion won't be available from day 1? I hadn't heard that part.

Yet no one posts on my Fandor thread

November 11th for Criterion. They have to wait for the Hulu deal to expire.

Not bad, if you do the $99 once-a-year payment, it's about $20 cheaper than a year of Netflix. Is there any way to browse the TCM catalog at the moment?

On their FB page they said Criterion will be available at launch.

I want to sign up but my two devices (Nvidia Shield TV and XB1) aren't supported.

I went by this press release that says the 1th of November.

https://thefilmstage.com/news/filmstruck-and-the-criterion-channel-reveal-subscription-pricing-plans/

Been reading a lot of information on the website and elsewhere, but haven't seen anything that says the TCM movies will also be part of the package. I have a nagging feeling that they're not. Also wonder if the Criterion movies will be available in 1080, instead of the 720 now on Hulu.

I don't think everything on nightly at TCM will be on there but a selection of TCM-sequel films.

I'm going to guess it will be like Mubi with a larger rotating library plus Criterion.

TCM-esque

yeah, TCM's tweet that filmstruck "will focus on indie, foreign & cult titles, not Old Hollywood. Some limited titles, not many" considerably dampened my enthusiasm.

https://twitter.com/tcm/status/777661149911347200

my guess is milo z otm re: criterion plus larger mubi. Which is cool, but not the turner library plus janus library nearly nonstop excellence that i had prematurely imagined

I have a Hulu subscription and honestly never watched a single Criterion title. The ones I want, I just buy.

I was excited when I thought this was gonna be criterion + old Hollywood tcm stuff. The latter element was critical for me. If it's criterion + buffet of other stuff then no.

Yeah, that's a bummer. I figured $99 was a no brainer but if it's Criterion plus some random rotating films I don't know.

basically i would pay... let's see... $15 a month for some reasonable fascimile of access to TCM's programming without having to have fucking cable tv

aw man. I too was pretty stoked for the TCM+Criterion version of this.

This weird in-between time where the biggest events still happen on old-fashioned cable TV, the "prestige" TEH DISCOURSE TV shows are on Netflix, film is either exploded across multiple competing streaming services or iTunes rental downloads that disappear after 24 hours or totally unavailable, video stores are rare — is totally excruciating.

whiney otm, i feel a deep nostalgia for, like, 2008-2010, when a full decade of DVD production had led to lot of foreign/classic/arthouse stuff to be available, and Netflix was still in the business of providing just about any DVD that got produced.

Like, the fact that we let this happen is ridiculous: http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/09/12/netflix_streaming_dvds/

maybe i just wasn't reading the early filmstruck announcements carefully, but it seems like everyone i know was expecting it to have a major focus on classic hollywood, given tcm's involvement. My guess is that getting streaming rights to that old hollywood stuff is probably just insanely complicated and, from a business perspective, not worth the investment of time and resources. Still disappointing though.

I've never watched any Criterions on Hulu but that's because their interface is such a disaster - you don't know what's streaming in HD, there's no easy way to sort the entire Criterion list, etc. Higher hopes for this, though I'm a lot less inclined toward a burning need to watch Truffaut than when I was 23.

Their interface/searching/tagging/credits is all pretty awful in comparison to Netflix and even Amazon Prime. That said, damn I'm gonna have to rush out some screenings before they leave. Better get Lady Snowblood queued up.

The FAQ has changed to specify that only 4th-gen Apple TV will support this, so me and my 3rd-gen box are out of luck. I'll have to load a film on my iMac and push it to the tv with Airplay.

With airplay/casting, does it make a difference if you're casting from a phone vs. a computer?

(I think my Apple TV is second generation...)

I honestly don't know. That time David Lynch cussed traumatized me so bad I've never tried watching film or video on my phone.

sad trombone

Hello film fans:

We want to share some news that the launch of FilmStruck is delayed until November as we work to complete a seamless and easy registration process for subscribers.

Just like the final stages of completing a film, this additional time will allow us to put the finishing touches on FilmStruck in order to bring you a premium service with beautifully curated content and the largest streaming library of world-renowned arthouse, indie, cult and foreign films. Rest assured, we're working hard to bring you the high-quality streaming movie service you've been waiting for.

Thank you for both your patience and your enthusiastic interest in FilmStruck.

The FilmStruck Team

At this point they should wait until the Hulu contract for the Criterions expires.

Yep. I wasn't planning on starting any free trial until everything was available.

Launched.
Looks like the Criterions are up with an 11-day overlap with Hulu. Seeing a lot of fussing on the Facebook page about errors while setting up payment.

Anyone start using this yet? Any thoughts (apart from the still unavailable (?) Criterions?

I'm in, just getting the apps installed now. I need a tivo app! Apple and Amazon will do for now.

Sound like it's worth waiting a few weeks for them to get all the bugs worked out

Not available on Roku til Jan so nope for a while. Also copy on their site suggested that virtually all Criterions wd be available but several that I've searched for are not (incl All That Jazz, ugh)

They have someone responding to comments on Facebook, putting on the shiny happy face but being really vague with specific questions.

Some Guy Named Dave: Your Criterion selection seems to be quite limited. Are you ever going to offer the same number of Criterion titles as Hulu - over 900?

FilmStruck: Hi Dave, on the #CriterionChannel side you will find the largest selection of Criterion releases available to stream

Me: That doesn't really answer the question that was asked...

FilmStruck: #CriterionChannel has the largest Criterion selection available streaming, more than was ever available elsewhere.

Me: Ozu on Hulu: 30 features, 2 shorts and a trailer
Ozu on Filmstruck: looks like 18 features

Filmstruck: (crickets)

Huh, why would it have less than Hulu does? That doesn't make any sense to me. I did notice through a cursory search that they had at least two titles not on Hulu (Godard's Every Man for Himself and Yang's A Brighter Summer Day), so I was hopeful that maybe it had more than Hulu.

It doesn't have all the Oshima titles that are currently on Hulu either

I'm hoping they're still loading up the buffet table. They have quite a few things that aren't on Hulu -- Blood Simple, that JFK documentary stuff. They got The Killing of a Chinese Bookie back, which disappeared from Hulu a year or more ago.

I'm hopeful too, though the way filmstruck has been marketed and rolled out has dampened my expectations all around

Even Criterion doesn't have the rights to all the Criterions anymore

yeah, otm, and i'm sure there are a number of criterions that got dvd release, but where they never had streaming rights. the more i search around on filmstruck the more i think that WilliamC is probably right that they're still adding movies to the service.

hm. no amazon app even!

TBF, this is the day where they're going nuts with the press.

Criterion Closet is hitting the road

Cool. Assuming image of HDS is from Two-Lane Blacktop

Paris, Texas imo

Probably

Yeah, that's Travis

https://kxci.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ParisTexas.jpg

October 2024 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8600-the-criterion-channel-s-october-2024-lineup

Huh, usually they have a good horror themed collection. This year it's ... three? Witches (good idea, would have found some more interesting movies), Japanese horror (cool), and FX (which looks kind of lame, not least because "Lifeforce" is on it, and iirc that movie's fx were shit).

Stephen King & John Carpenter selections are on there too

lol at Lawnmower Man in a Criterion collection.

Huh, the only (theatrical, not TV) Carpenter I see is The Fog and Christine? There's a Cronenberg section, too, but with just a few films. Stephen King one is pretty limited as well, with just four movies, one of which is Christine. Japanese horror has the most solid line-up, followed (maybe) by giallo.

The Spell, made for tv in 1977, rips off Carrie (although the makers claim this script was in development first) and is ridiculously incoherent besides. Dumb fun, but more the former.

So far the giallo films haven’t been doing it for me.

November 2024 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8625-the-criterion-channel-s-november-2024-lineup

West Indies, nice, I can cross one more off the S&S list.

December 2024 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8648-the-criterion-channel-s-december-2024-lineup

Beavis and Butthead Do America *chef kiss*

January 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8677-the-criterion-channel-s-january-2025-lineup

Watched Hitchcock’s Suspicion last night. I think I’ve seen every Hitch film post-1940 or so at least once, but 95% of this seemed new to me. I remembered the two famous set pieces (glass of milk and car ride) but had no memory of Cary’s incessant “monkey face” or Nigel Bruce’s Beaky character or any of the plot at all.

February 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8698-the-criterion-channel-s-february-2025-lineup

oh cool, I was just looking for that today

March 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8725-the-criterion-channel-s-march-2025-lineup

When a woman’s body washes up on the shore in small-town China in the 1990s, the local chief of police, Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong), is tasked with leading the investigation. An obvious suspect leads to a hasty arrest, though the mystery lingers in Ma Zhe’s mind. What kind of darkness is truly at play here?

About a year ago, I bought a copy of "Dekalog" on ebay for what seemed like a good price. I was recently googling around for something else, and I saw some reference to someone else buying a copy of "Dekalog" on ebay for what seemed like a good price (sounds familiar) and it turned out to be a Chinese bootleg. Hmm, I thought, and dug out my (unopened and unexamined) blu-ray, and indeed, it's a boot! And a really good one at that. Four discs, each with disc art, in a box emblazoned with all the usual Criterion signifiers, bells and whistles (including copyrights and credits), albeit missing the essays/insert. I haven't tried it yet, but apparently it's a really good copy. But boy, what a rarified bootleg that is, a really well packaged Chinese copy of a Criterion blu-ray edition of a Polish TV series from the '80s. Hard to believe it's worth the effort, but I guess you never know.

This is not my picture, but here's how it looks:
https://preview.redd.it/i-accidentally-bought-a-bootleg-criterion-of-the-dekalog-v0-y57wd2oolb7e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=849b7ba3836436405fac4c8050a2807281270c27
https://preview.redd.it/i-accidentally-bought-a-bootleg-criterion-of-the-dekalog-v0-fywib3oolb7e1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28bbc063cf5db8d9351dbc449c07291643e9a2f0

does it get the acute on the Ś right?

On his name, you mean? It's there on most of the box, but maybe not consistently in the body of the text on the back. Afaict mine looks identical to the one above.

April 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8751-the-criterion-channel-s-april-2025-lineup

Canada doesn't get any of the Farrow noirs? The hell!

$25 store credit for Channel charter subscribers. Aren't those usually $10? But this one expires at the end of October.

Did you get a new code? I don't think I have yet.

yes, about 30 minutes ago

I think some people (you) got $25, while other people (me) got a code to share a free one month subscription with friends and family. Lame.

they gave me 20% off annual as a nonsubscriber.

Posted my $25 code on 77

Watched Taking of Pelham 123 last night, gosh what a wonderful film

May 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8772-the-criterion-channel-s-may-2025-lineup

I need like a whole month where I get to do nothing but watch noirs.

Whenever I watch one of those Criterion closet picks videos I am always surprised that, when faced with all the crazy and classic stuff in the collection, people's picks often come off almost totally random. It'll be, like, "I'm picking Dekalog and The Breakfast Club and Shoah and Infernal Affairs and Boyhood and The Human Condition." Love how the diversity of taste in movies is reflected in the diversity of the catalog.

I feel like some of it is observer effect. Like nobody loves paper moon that much gtf outta here.

lol, that's kinda what I mean! if I were dropped in there there's all sorts of shit I would go for. No one seems to go for, like, all the great Japanese directors.

Was it brandon jacob jenkins who just grabbed all the 10 disc box sets? That’s the play

June 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8802-the-criterion-channel-s-june-2025-lineup

Jordan Peele/Sinners headz should check out the '66 short feature Dutchman, which was added this month.

Will try to remember to watch the Les Blank/Leon Russell film.

Dutchman rec v good thank u

July 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8837-the-criterion-channel-s-july-2025-lineup

Wasn't expecting to get invited to partake of a class action settlement against Criterion for allegedly selling user data.

There are so many of these similar lawsuits overlapping out there. I got one the other day about Gamestop mining or selling my personal data, and I had to think, huh, when did I get something at Gamestop? Like, maybe once I bought a used game online and picked it up in store and they ... sold whatever minimal personal data that entailed? I didn't bother signing on for the $5 or whatever payout in the distant future. The irony is that the only way the legal team could even find and attempt to rope me in is that ... they had my personal info.

Anyway, whatever, Criterion, enjoy my personal data. If it helps me get better targeted ads the rare instances I am on social media, so be it.

August 2025 additions: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8863-the-criterion-channel-s-august-2025-lineup

Was The Shrouds only a weeklong engagement? It's already gone!

Is it? I still see it in there. Still need to watch it. Unless there is some lag and it will go vanish for me too in a few hours

Just checked and it still ain’’t there. This might be a Canada thing, though; I suspect one of the other streaming services here has the rights to it or whatever.