The dog days of summer are usually when the big streamers start leaning on heat-dead comfort viewing, but The Criterion Channel is taking a stranger, deeper, more restless path in July. The streamer’s new month begins July 1 with a heavy lineup that moves from Harry Dean Stanton’s haunted, weathered screen presence to murderous melodramas, Jonathan Demme’s open-hearted genre play, Daniel Clowes’ cracked moviegoing sensibility, BlackStar Film Festival highlights, and the 1960s paranoia machine “The Prisoner.”
The Stanton tribute is the obvious centerpiece. Born one hundred years ago this month, Stanton spent decades as one of American cinema’s great marginal figures before “Paris, Texas” and “Repo Man” turned him into something close to an underground icon. Criterion’s lineup stretches across his supporting work, cult landmarks, and late-career grace notes, including “Cool Hand Luke,” “Straight Time,” “Wise Blood,” “Escape From New York,” “Christine,” “The Last Temptation Of Christ,” “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,” “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas,” “The Straight Story,” “Inland Empire,” “Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction,” and “Lucky.”
Elsewhere, July gets a sharp midcentury fever with “Murderous Melodramas,” a collection that leans into Hollywood’s appetite for desire, violence, bad behavior, and domestic rot disguised as respectable genre machinery. The lineup includes John M. Stahl’s “Leave Her To Heaven,” Lewis Allen’s “Desert Fury,” Henry Hathaway’s “Niagara,” Nicholas Ray’s “Bigger Than Life,” Douglas Sirk’s “Written On The Wind,” and Vincente Minnelli’s “Some Came Running,” among others.
The channel is also marking the fifteenth year of the BlackStar Film Festival with a selection that draws from each year of the festival’s history. The program includes features from Andrew Dosunmu, Blitz Bazawule, Jessica Beshir, Shatara Michelle Ford, and Cecilia Aldarondo, alongside shorts by Cauleen Smith, Ja’Tovia Gary, Adepero Oduye, Imani Dennison, and Christopher Radcliff.
Celebrated graphic novelist Daniel Clowes gets his own corner of the month with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” edition, joined by two of his best-known screen collaborations with Terry Zwigoff: “Ghost World” and “Art School Confidential.” His selections include Vittorio De Sica’s “Umberto D.,” Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu,” Karel Zeman’s “Journey To The Beginning Of Time,” and Peter Weir’s “The Plumber.”
Demme’s mini-retrospective is small but potent: “Something Wild,” “Married To The Mob,” “The Silence Of The Lambs,” and “Rachel Getting Married.” It’s a neat four-film argument for a filmmaker who could move from screwball chaos to horror classic to emotional bruising without losing his curiosity about people.
On the television side, “The Prisoner” brings Patrick McGoohan’s 1967–1968 British cult series back into view, with its nameless spy trapped in the Village and its still-chilly anxieties about surveillance, authority, and the illusion of freedom. The month’s exclusive premiere is “Are We Good?,” Steven Feinartz’s documentary about Marc Maron processing grief, comedy, and the death of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton.
The July slate also includes rediscoveries and restorations such as “The Energy War,” “People’s Hero,” “Pom Pom And Hot Hot,” and “Bye Bye Love,” plus director spotlights on Khyentse Norbu, Onyeka Igwe, and Joel Potrykus. There’s also an actor spotlight on Ninón Sevilla, Hollywood hits like “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and “Bad Influence,” music films “A Band Called Death” and “Nightclubbing: The Birth Of Punk Rock In NYC,” and the short “S The Wolf.”
July on the Criterion Channel begins streaming July 1. The complete lineup follows.
A Moving Image, Shola Amoo, 2016
A Radical Duet, Onyeka Igwe, 2023
An Ecstatic Experience, Ja’Tovia Gary, 2015
Are We Good?, Steven Feinartz, 2025
Art School Confidential, Terry Zwigoff, 2006
Aventurera, Alberto Gout, 1950
Bad Influence, Curtis Hanson, 1990
A Band Called Death, Jeff Howlett and Mark Christopher Covino, 2012
Bigger Than Life, Nicholas Ray, 1956
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Stephen Herek, 1989
The Burial of Kojo, Blitz Bazawule, 2018
Buzzard, Joel Potrykus, 2014
Bye Bye Love, Isao Fujisawa, 1974
Carita de dielo, José Díaz Morales, 1947
The Changing Same, Cauleen Smith, 2001
Christine, John Carpenter, 1983
Cool Hand Luke, Stuart Rosenberg, 1967
Desert Fury, Lewis Allen, 1947
The Energy War, D. A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, and Pat Powell, 1978
Escape from New York, John Carpenter, 1981
Evolution of a Criminal, Darius Clark Monroe, 2014
Farewell, My Lovely, Dick Richards, 1975
Faya dayi, Jessica Beshir, 2021
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam, 1998*
Fire Through Dry Grass, Andrés “Jay” Molina and Alexis Neophytides, 2023
Ghost World, Terry Zwigoff, 2001
The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, Richard Fleischer, 1955
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, Sophie Huber, 2012
Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait, Khyentse Norbu, 2016
High Art, Lisa Cholodenko, 1998
Home from the Hill, Vincente Minnelli, 1960
Inland Empire, David Lynch, 2006
Journey to the Beginning of Time, Karel Zeman, 1955
A Kiss Before Dying, Gerd Oswald, 1956
Landfall, Cecilia Aldarondo, 2020
The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese, 1988*
Leave Her to Heaven, John M. Stahl, 1945
The Long, Hot Summer, Martin Ritt, 1958
Lucky, John Carroll Lynch, 2017*
Married to the Mob, Jonathan Demme, 1988
The Miracle on George Green, Onyeka Igwe, 2022
the names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered, Onyeka Igwe, 2019
Niagara, Henry Hathaway, 1953
Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in NYC, Danny Garcia, 2022
No Down Payment, Martin Ritt, 1957
Paris, Texas, Wim Wenders, 1984
Penkelemes, Onyeka Igwe, 2025
The People Could Fly, Imani Dennison, 2024
People’s Hero, Derek Yee Tung-sing, 1987
Pig at the Crossing, Khyentse Norbu, 2024
Pom Pom and Hot Hot, Joe Cheung Tung-cho, 1992
Portrait in Black, Michael Gordon, 1960*
The Prisoner, 1967–1968*
Queen Bee, Ranald MacDougall, 1955
Rachel Getting Married, Jonathan Demme, 2008
Repo Man, Alex Cox, 1984
Restless City, Andrew Dosunmu, 2011
Ride in the Whirlwind, Monte Hellman, 1966
S the Wolf, Sameh Alaa, 2025
The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014
The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme, 1991
a so-called archive, Onyeka Igwe, 2020
Some Came Running, Vincente Minnelli, 1958
Something Wild, Jonathan Demme, 1986
Specialised Technique, Onyeka Igwe, 2018
Straight Time, Ulu Grosbard, 1978
The Straight Story, David Lynch, 1999
Take Me in Your Arms, Julio Bracho, 1954
Test Pattern, Shatara Michelle Ford, 2019
To Be Free, Adepero Oduye, 2017
Travellers and Magicians, Khyentse Norbu, 2003*
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, David Lynch, 1992
Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953
Umberto D., Vittorio De Sica, 1952
Victims of Sin, Emilio Fernández, 1951
Violent Saturday, Richard Fleischer, 1955
Vulcanizadora, Joel Potrykus, 2024
We Need New Names, Onyeka Igwe, 2015
We Were the Scenery, Christopher Radcliff, 2025
Where the Lilies Bloom, William A. Graham, 1974
Wild at Heart, David Lynch, 1990
Wise Blood, John Huston, 1979
Written on the Wind, Douglas Sirk, 1956*
*Available in the U.S. only.
