Criterion Closet
Ranked 2 of 5 movie databases by recommenders
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.
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.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 72%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Browsing and rediscovering the collection
“I love this and wasted more time than I want to admit looking through the collection.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf” “Nice to be reminded of the collection, and another way to present it.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf” Enthusiasm for using it often
“love it, what a shame I couldn't use it more before”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf” “I’m going to use the heck out of this!”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Small, hard-to-read text
“Sideways, small, and far away isn't an ideal format for reading hundreds of titles.”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf” “The text really needs some better rendering technique. It is very hard to read.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf” Missing films and compilations
“All of the films without spine numbers”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf” “Missing quite a few compilations”
Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf”
Other movie databases people recommend
The four most recommended other movie databases, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Letterboxd | 16 | 14 | 53% | 8 | — | — |
| Criterion ClosetThis page | 13 | 5 | 72% | 1 | — | — |
| JustWatch | 11 | 3 | 79% | 5 | — | Approved |
| IMDb | 6 | 34 | 15% | 5 | — | — |
| CineCLI | 6 | 4 | 60% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 19 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“love it, what a shame I couldn't use it more before”
“I love this and wasted more time than I want to admit looking through the collection.”
“They really tapped into clever marketing with that one.”
“The text really needs some better rendering technique. It is very hard to read.”
“Nice! Would be really nice to have links to director's picks.”
“This is great, but unusable for people like me that need to have the y axis inverted.”
“it shows a list of movies that likely have the word in their synopsis”
“Awesome! I recently replaced Netflix for Criterion so this is quite welcome!”
“Nice to be reminded of the collection, and another way to present it.”
“All of the films without spine numbers”
“I’m going to use the heck out of this!”
“Missing quite a few compilations”
“this would be great to bolster them”
“your cursor gets kind of stuck in the page, you can't get out of it unless you press escape on your keyboard”
“Sideways, small, and far away isn't an ideal format for reading hundreds of titles.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.