Anti-Criterion Challenge 2024

52 movies  

11/52

These are my picks for the fourth-annual Anti-Criterion Challenge (2024). As described by creator <a href="https://letterboxd.com/thponders/">T.H. Ponders</a>, it is intended as "a companion, confutation, and rebuttal of the Criterion Challenge."

Original source list including the rules and themes is here: https://letterboxd.com/thponders/list/the-anti-criterion-challenge-2024

Movie

This Is Not a Film (2011)
این فیلم نیست WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
★ 7.5 20 ratings
墨塔巴·米塔玛斯博 / 贾法·帕纳西 actor: 贾法·帕纳西 / 墨塔巴·米塔玛斯博
other title: این فیلم نیست / Isto não é um filme …
Renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi received a 6-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban from filmmaking and conducting interviews with foreign press due to his open support for the opposition party in Iran's 2009 election. In this film, which was shot secretly by Panahi's close friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled into France on a USB stick concealed inside a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, Panahi documents his daily life under house arrest as he awaits a decision on his appeal.

Movie

Ingrid Goes West (2017)
Ingrid Goes West
★ 6.3 23 ratings
other title: 언프리티 소셜 스타 / イングリッド ネットストーカーの女 …
Ingrid becomes obsessed with a social network star named Taylor Sloane who seemingly has a perfect life. But when Ingrid decides to drop everything and move west to be Taylor's friend, her behaviour turns unsettling and dangerous.

Movie

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
★ 6.2 13 ratings
other title: 对垒特工 / 出奇致胜 …
Jonathan Ecks, an FBI agent, realizes that he must join with his lifelong enemy, Agent Sever, a rogue DIA agent with whom he is in mortal combat, in order to defeat a common enemy. That enemy has developed a "micro-device" that can be injected into victims in order to kill them at will.

Movie

Five Broken Cameras (2011)
5 Broken Cameras
★ 8.0 12 ratings
艾马德·博纳特 / 盖伊·戴维迪 actor: Emad Burnat / Mohammed Burnat …
other title: 5台破相机 / 5 Broken Cameras …
Five broken cameras – and each one has a powerful tale to tell. Embedded in the bullet-ridden remains of digital technology is the story of Emad Burnat, a farmer from the Palestinian village of Bil’in, which famously chose nonviolent resistance when the Israeli army encroached upon its land to make room for Jewish colonists. Emad buys his first camera in 2005 to document the birth of his fourth son, Gibreel. Over the course of the film, he becomes the peaceful archivist of an escalating struggle as olive trees are bulldozed, lives are lost, and a wall is built to segregate burgeoning Israeli settlements.

Movie

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
★ 6.8 46 ratings
乔治·克鲁尼 actor: 迪克·克拉克 / 山姆·洛克威尔 …
other title: 컨페션 / Confissões de uma Mente Perigosa …
Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. Television producer by day, CIA assassin by night, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA at the height of his TV career and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.
AtomicPwrdRobot Screenplay adapted from a work of nonfiction

BONUS CHALLENGE: At least a decade between the publication of the source material and the adaptation.

Movie

In Bloom (2013)
გრძელი ნათელი დღეები
★ 8.0 6 ratings
娜娜·埃克夫蒂米什维利 / 西蒙·格罗斯 actor: Lika Babluani / Mariam Bokeria
other title: 豆蔻年华 / გრძელი ნათელი დღეები …
Eka and Natia leave their childhood behind and ignore societal customs to escape from their turbulent family lives.

Movie

Hide and Freak (1990)
3615 code Père Noël WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
雷内·曼佐 actor: 布丽吉特·佛西 / 路易斯·迪克勒 …
other title: 圣诞顽童历险记 / 3615 code Père Noël …
Thomas de Frémont, a precocious child obsessed with action films, sets himself up for a terrifying Christmas Eve after he unwittingly makes contact with a deranged psychopath who claims he's Santa Claus.
Reply Quote July 23, 2026