# Criterion Closet

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Criterion Closet and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Lets shoppers browse and rediscover Criterion Collection films in a shelf-like layout. Critics say text is hard to read and the y-axis cannot be inverted.

## Why people recommend it

- Browsing and rediscovering the collection (2 comments): "I love this and wasted more time than I want to admit looking through the collection." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48634712)) "Nice to be reminded of the collection, and another way to present it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48624766))
- Enthusiasm for using it often (2 comments): "love it, what a shame I couldn't use it more before" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48635302)) "I’m going to use the heck out of this!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48624253))

## What people warn about

- Small, hard-to-read text (2 comments): "Sideways, small, and far away isn't an ideal format for reading hundreds of titles." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48581307)) "The text really needs some better rendering technique. It is very hard to read." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48628054))
- Missing films and compilations (2 comments): "All of the films without spine numbers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48624537)) "Missing quite a few compilations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48612396))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Letterboxd](https://hackerapproved.com/p/letterboxd.md): 16 recommend
- [JustWatch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/justwatch.md): 11 recommend
- [IMDb](https://hackerapproved.com/p/imdb.md): 6 recommend
- [CineCLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cinecli.md): 6 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.criterion.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Criterion Closet", https://hackerapproved.com/p/criterion-closet/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).