The Criterion Channel streaming service — along with its parent company, the Criterion Collection — is beloved by cinephiles for its massive lineup of all-time classic films, contemporary indie flicks, and fascinating obscurities. And despite its elevated arthouse reputation, this channel is also a go-to for cult classics and delightfully trashy low-budget fare.
What if you’re a movie lover who also loves cars? Don’t sleep on the Criterion Channel’s library of more than 3,000 permanent and rotating titles. You’ll find a surprisingly large selection of movies that zoom in on automobiles, racing, and life-changing road trips. Here are a dozen Criterion car-movie highlights that you can add to your watchlist right now.
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Best known as the first film directed by the legendary Peter Weir, this cult horror movie takes place in a remote Australian town where the residents deliberately cause automobile crashes to kill or maim passers-through. They make money by salvaging and selling the wrecked vehicles left behind, but chaos ensues when the town’s disaffected youth use the parts to create their own bizarrely modified cars.
Directed by Richard Linklater, this all-time classic high school comedy gets a lot of mileage from its laid-back 1970s setting, its terrific cast, and its nostalgic soundtrack (ZZ Top, Foghat, Kiss, Black Sabbath). Not surprisingly, it’s also stacked with classic cars like the Pontiac GTO, the Chevy Chevelle, and the Plymouth Duster.
In this groundbreaking low-budget film noir, the down-on-his-luck main character hitches a ride — then witnesses the driver’s accidental death. Fearing he’ll be implicated, he hides the body and steals the driver’s identity and car. If you’ve ever seen a noir movie before, you’ll know he’s not headed for a happily-ever-after outcome.
In this beautifully shot and soundtracked film by master Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, a grieving theater director heads up a production of Uncle Vanya, bonds with his troubled young driver, and takes long rides in his beloved red Saab 900 Turbo.
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Truck driving is an especially dangerous line of work in this white-knuckle British crime film. As if it’s not bad enough that the titular Hell Drivers are required to spend the entire day hauling huge loads of gravel at dangerously high speeds, they also face (and engage in) high levels of violence, betrayal, and corruption.
Directed by Wim Wenders, this gorgeously filmed black-and-white road movie follows a traveling movie projector repairman who becomes friends with a depressed man he meets along the way. Together, they drive around the German countryside in a work truck, bonding with each other and encountering various small-town characters along the way.
Each vignette in this creative and compelling anthology film by Jim Jarmusch takes place in a different city (Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki) on a single night, and the focus is the same for all five — an offbeat interaction between a cab driver and a passenger (or passengers).
In this wistful but hilarious film, two Native American men from the Cheyenne tribe — one an embattled activist and the other a spiritually minded seeker — embark on a journey from Montana to New Mexico in a falling-apart 1964 Buick Wildcat.
In this classic comedy about societal changes and the dangerous joys of the open road, a charismatic ne’er-do-well and a young law student meet by chance and embark on a trip across Italy in a Lancia Aurelia convertible. The movie gets its name from the Italian word for passing another car on the highway.
The Straight Story may be David Lynch’s gentlest and most straightforward movie, but it’s still plenty quirky. Based on a true story, it follows the heartwarming adventures of an elderly man who drives across Iowa and Wisconsin on a riding lawnmower to visit his ailing and estranged brother.
Jacques Tati’s bumbling and beloved comedic character Monsieur Hulot makes his final appearance in this uproariously silly movie. Hulot has to deliver a car to an auto show in Amsterdam, but getting there turns out to be no simple task as he’s confronted by an escalating series of traffic jams, collisions, police stops, and other vehicular mishaps.
In this masterpiece of excruciating suspense, four drivers risk it all for a huge payday by attempting to deliver two truckloads of nitroglycerin to the site of an oil well fire. Their route through the mountains is a treacherous one, and a single wrong move or jarring bump could result in sudden death. (This movie’s 1977 remake, Sorcerer, occasionally shows up on Criterion as well).
A longtime editor/writer and recently transplanted Hoosier, Caleb Cook lives in Xenia, Ohio. His favorite activities are reading and listening to music, although he occasionally emerges from the heap of books and vinyl records in his basement to stand blinking in the sunlight. Once fully acclimated to the outside world again, he can be observed hanging out with his wife, attempting a new recipe in the kitchen, attending movies, walking the dog, or wandering into a local brewery to inquire about what’s on tap. See more articles by Caleb.
