Finally ponied up for Hulu on Friday and hit the Criterion collection hard. So far I’ve been through:

The Hidden Fortress - I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to this one, given the fact that I’ve been hearing about it as it relates to the origins of Star Wars for years and years. Lovely, exciting, charming movie. My only issue was what the hell they were trying to do with Princess Yuki’s voice, but on the whole I loved it.

The American Astronaut - not a Criterion movie, but it was something I watched almost weekly when I was in film school so it scratches a similar itch. I hadn’t seen it in five or six years and it was like coming home. Such a strange little homoerotic musical space western, but I adore the hell out of it.

The Naked Kiss - another thing from college I decided to revisit. Pure pulp goodness. I can’t believe they got away with it in 1964.

Knife in the Water - very interesting as a look at Roman Polanski’s earliest work, but a little bit of a slog to get through. It felt a good bit longer than it actually was. Happy to have seen it, but I don’t imagine this is going to be one that I come back to regularly.

I might fire up another Kurosawa flick after the Euro Cup final. I promised my buddy I’d hold off on Seven Samurai and Yojimbo until he’s around, so I’ll probably go with Rashomon.