The latest in Criterion’s online magazine: Revisiting a golden age of soundtracks

By rahmat hidayat

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Plus: Charles Busch's Top 10, the films of Bigas Luna, and two Edward Yang satires

Current HIGHLIGHTS SEPTEMBER 7, 2025 A roundup of recent articles from Criterion's online magazine. Happy reading!

The Decade of the Soundtrack Underground Music's Big-Screen Moment. Cultural critic and podcast host Yasi Salek discusses the extraordinary convergence of punk, hip-hop, indie rock, and electronica in 1990s cinema. By Aliza Ma WATCH A collection of '90s films with outstanding soundtracks, programmed by Salek, is now playing on the Criterion Channel.

Bigas Luna's Sensuous Surrealism A Celebration of One of Spain's Most Original Filmmakers. In such provocative delights as Jamón jamón and Golden Balls, the director evokes the pleasures of food and sex while capturing the rapid changes his country experienced at the turn of the millennium. By Gonzalo M. Pavés WATCH Five of Luna's films are now playing on the Criterion Channel.

Charles Busch's Top 10 The playwright, screenwriter, and camp icon reflects on the classic American movies that have influenced his work. WATCH Psycho Beach Party, adapted from a play by Busch, is now playing on the Criterion Channel.

Modern Times On Two Underappreciated Films by Edward Yang. In A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong, the director sought to uncover what was hidden in Taipei society, often in plain sight, looking past the city's shiny skyline to the fault lines beneath the surface. By Dennis Lim WATCH A new 4K restoration of Yang's 2000 masterpiece, Yi Yi, is now playing at Film at Lincoln Center in New York. Reaching the End Michael Roemer's Unflinching Look at Mortality. Made for public television, the 1976 documentary Dying is one of the purest expressions of the director's career-long preoccupation with human fragility. By Bilge Ebiri WATCH Dying is now playing on the Criterion Channel.

OLDIE BUT GOODIE "The camera's point of view, under Pakula's direction, becomes less cinematic than human—it feels like a bystander." —Nathan Heller on Alan J. Pakula, whose Paranoia Trilogy is now playing on the Criterion Channel

THE DAILY Essential Reading A Roundup of Noteworthy Film Books. Among the highlights are new biographies of directors Jonathan Demme and Jonathan Glazer. READ MORE David Hudson looks back on the life and work of actor Terence Stamp, who passed away last month.

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