What's good on Criterion Channel right now? Hitchcock classics, Robert Altman gems, and Parker Posey's Party Girl

That’s right. When Criterion Channel adds a slate of iconic Alfred Hitchcock films, you know we’re going to talk . How much do we really have to say? It’s Psycho! One of the most enduring and influential horror films ever made! It broke down barriers concerning violence and sexuality in film, and is a Freudian thrill ride that pioneered the psychoanalytical thriller. If you haven’t seen it, now’s a good time to finally do so. And if you have, a rewatch never hurts.

Bette Gordon takes us inside the seedy walls of ’80s Times Square with —about one young woman’s sexual awakening in the erotic underbelly of New York. stars as Christine, an aspiring author who takes on a ticketing job at a pornographic theater in a moment of financial desperation. There, she begins to rub elbows with patrons, including the wealthy Louie (Richard M. Davidson), who she follows down a sexual rabbit hole. With appearances from Spalding Gray, Luis Guzmán (in one of his first roles), and photographer Nan Goldin, Variety is a time capsule of a New York gone by.

Frank Capra’s is one of those early rom-coms that makes you go, “Ah, so everyone just copied this after it was made.” The pre-Code flick seizes upon the opportunity to be horny, scandalous and rowdy, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert bringing their own distinct charms to the lead roles. So much about this 1934 film shines, from Gable’s interactions with his grouchy editor to the scene where the lovebirds end up in the backseat of a car driven by a man who cannot stop singing. It Happened One Night is only one of three films to take home wins in all major Academy Award categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The first of two picks on our list from director Robert Altman is the psychological drama , starring Sissy Spacek, Shelley Duval, and Janice Rule. The women coexist in a sparse desert town, representing different life stages of the same person. There’s Pinky (Spacek), an awkward, clueless young woman who becomes obsessed with her spa co-worker, Millie Lammoreaux (Duval). Millie—who’s just as oblivious in social interactions—takes Pinky under her wing, attempting to show her the ropes of adulthood. Then there’s Willie, the stoic, pregnant (very literal) mother figure to both of them. As the three move through life in their small town, their identities begin to move between one another. 3 Women is a surreal venture—with one of the best dream sequences ever put to film—and features knockout performances from Duvall and Spacek, who maneuver these ever-changing women with ease.

In between All That Heaven Allows and Written On The Wind, melodrama master Douglas Sirk crafted , about a toymaker’s dissatisfaction with his home life. While Sirk’s most famous works deal with women’s desolation in the domestic realm, in There’s Always Tomorrow we see Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray) struggle with the trappings of isolation within fatherhood and marriage. When a former employee (Barbara Stanwyck) reenters his life, he must choose between starting anew or reevaluating his relationship with his wife (Joan Bennett) and adolescent children. There’s drama, eloquent lighting, and kids who refuse to stay out of their parent’s affairs—classic Sirk!

Parker Posey has an unparalleled ability to elevate and enliven the work she’s in, and 1995’s is no exception. Posey leads Daisy von Scherler Mayer’s film as Mary, an aimless twenty-something who lives and breathes New York’s party scene. When she gets busted for throwing an unofficial rave, Mary ends up on the path to discovering her passion: The Dewey Decimal System. It’s a dose of low-stakes fun with totally tubular slang, voguing, and a romance with a falafel cart owner. Come for “falafel with hot sauce, a side order of baba ghanoush, and a seltzer,” and stay for Liev Schreiber’s truly atrocious English accent.

The year after starring in Hitchcock’s The Birds, Tippi Hedren received top billing in another offering from the director: The lesser-known psychological thriller . Hedren plays the titular character, who not only has a mysterious, traumatic past, but a propensity to lie, steal, and scam her way through jobs and across state lines. Her criminal days come to a swift end when she meets Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), who deduces her real identity and blackmails her into marriage. However, Marnie continues to struggle with her paralyzing fear of intimacy, the color red, and thunderstorms. Hitchcock continues the psychoanalytical streak he established in Psycho as Marnie eventually gets to the root of the title character’s trauma.

Director envelops us in the drug-laced world of two lesbian pornstars in , which lies somewhere between documentary and fiction. Pornographic actor Sharon Mitchell and her girlfriend Tigr Mennett lead the film as fictionalized versions of themselves, detailing their budding romance on a porno shoot and the strife that comes with working in the ’80s porn industry. Kamikaze Hearts is tantalizing and voyeuristic, yet distressing.

“Born loser” Phillip Marlowe finds himself adrift in hedonistic, self-serving Los Angeles in Robert Altman’s masterful, . The neo-noir is like a treasure trove of immaculate writing, performances, and direction under the guidance of Altman. Elliott Gould’s Marlowe is a reserved, sardonic, high-minded man looking to feed his cat and mind his business, but he still manages to get caught up in the investigation of his friend’s suicide. Gould’s an on-screen marvel who has us clinging to every mumbling narration. And the various iterations of John Williams’ theme song that float in and out of the film are just another highlight of this (we’ll say it) perfect feature.

Long before he made a film about modern Europe seen through the eyes of a melancholic donkey, Jerzy Skolimowski made the coming-of-age film, . Like other selections this month, Deep End is a story of obsession, lost identity, and sexual awakening. John Moudler-Brown leads the film as Mike, an aimless 15-year-old who takes on a job at a bathhouse, where he meets Susan (Jane Asher). What starts as an earnest infatuation becomes an increasingly deranged fixation as Mike refuses to let go of his fantasy of Susan. Immensely British in tone and peppered with off-kilter humor, Deep End fits wonderfully next to other films of the era that explore adolescent sexuality.