Richard Gadd’s Closet Picks

0:00 Hello, I’m Richard Gadd.

0:01 I’m in the Criterion Closet, about to pick some of my favorite films.

0:06 Okay, I’ve got to go here to Happiness by Todd Solondz.

0:11 I remember first seeing this when I was at university.

0:14 It kind of blew my mind.

0:15 It’s very hard to sum up the plot of this.

0:17 Bunch of misfits shuffling their way through life

0:20 in really sort of very dark and very, very idiosyncratic ways.

0:27 Some of the storylines, some plot lines, I couldn’t believe.

0:29 It was very much a sort of artistic coming-of-age film for me,

0:32 in the sense that I didn’t quite realize that film,

0:35 TV, all these kinds of things could go to these depths.

0:39 There’s a particular scene in it,

0:40 which I won’t take us through, where I remember watching it,

0:43 and actually the kind of sweat and the tingles went up the back of my neck.

0:46 But this goes to some shocking places, but it never,

0:48 ever loses sight of the human life behind it all.

0:51 So that goes straight into the bag.

0:53 Memories of Murder, Bong Joon Ho.

0:56 Parasite ’s a ten out of ten for me.

0:58 But this, somehow, it was a 10.1 out of 10.

1:01 It was just incredible.

1:02 When I describe the plot of Memories of Murder to people,

1:05 it’s a detective trying to solve the crime of a serial killer,

1:08 and a lot of people sort of feel like that’s a plot they’ve seen before.

1:13 But the way he does it, the frustration you feel emanating out of the camera,

1:18 it’s got huge satire at the heart of it:

1:20 corruption in the police force, the damage that incompetence does to victims.

1:24 So one of my favorite films,

1:26 one of my favorite directors, that goes straight into the bag.

1:29 Trainspotting, probably my most favorite film of all time.

1:35 I remember when I sat down to do Baby Reindeer,

1:37 I really wanted to have voice-over in it,

1:40 and so I almost watched every film that had voice-over, of prominence,

1:44 and Trainspotting gave it this exhilaration, this pushing forward in time.

1:48 It takes you from one scene and it throws you to the next,

1:51 and it all feels like an adrenaline rush,

1:53 it all feels like you’re on drugs when you’re watching it.

1:56 It captures the euphoria in amongst the degradation.

2:00 I think there’s a version of Trainspotting that a lot of directors would take,

2:03 and it would be social realist and it would be bleak,

2:05 but Danny Boyle keeps that sense of play alive.

2:07 But it’s all earned.

2:08 It’s all borne out of character, like the famous bit where Lou Reed’s “Perfect

2:12 Day” plays and he sinks into the carpet.

2:14 All of that is just… It’s directorial vision at its very best,

2:18 and none of it’s cynical.

2:19 I think a lot of new directors, I feel like they come in and they put

2:23 the trickery onto a show that doesn’t call for it.

2:26 But every single piece of flair in this film is earned.

2:29 What a film.

2:30 I can’t not go to a Scorsese film and I’ll go to… I gotta go to Raging Bull.

2:37 I don’t think this is too controversial, but I think De Niro as Jake La

2:41 Motta is the best on-screen performance of all time.

2:43 And of course, you can’t forget Joe Pesci in this film as well.

2:46 All the acting is top-notch.

2:48 You realize you’re kind of… That’s the beauty of acting when

2:52 you actually get lost and you think you’re watching real life.

2:55 That’s what those two do the best.

2:56 There’s the scene where he’s punching the wall and he’s going ballistic,

3:00 and you feel everything in your own hands as you’re watching it.

3:03 I gotta bring out another Scorsese: The Last Waltz.

3:06 The thing that I love most is,

3:08 it does have talking heads and it does have… it does have all the band

3:11 speaking about why they decided to call it a day and all that kind of stuff,

3:15 but really he just lets the music play.

3:17 That’s the thing with Scorsese: I never,

3:19 ever feel like he gets in the way of the story he’s about to tell.

3:23 I never feel he put something on to it.

3:25 I feel, everything he does as a director, which is why he’s the greatest,

3:29 is that he pulls… “How do I pull

3:31 this story out and honor it in the correct way?”

3:33 And with this, I think it would have been so easy

3:35 to splice it up and have talking heads every two seconds.

3:39 But really, he just lets the music play and, in a way,

3:42 I watch it and I feel almost… I almost feel quite emotional,

3:45 just watching this, this exquisite band play their last.

3:49 And that’s the beauty of Scorsese.

3:51 He had all this footage in the world and he

3:53 just lets it breathe in all the most beautiful ways.

3:55 Oh, is this Gimme Shelter?

3:56 Is this that Rolling Stones one where the… Yeah.

4:01 Oh my God, this is another amazing music documentary.

4:04 I’ve realized doing this that I’m a sucker for a music documentary, actually.

4:07 I think it’s often spoken about as being the end

4:09 of the ’60s and peace and love and all this stuff,

4:12 this horrific act happening at the very heart of one of the… of one

4:18 of the gigs of one of the bands that made the ’60s what it was.

4:22 It’s so much more than a music documentary in that sense.

4:26 And it’s an absolute must-watch, so Gimme Shelter, check it out.

4:30 Easy Rider.

4:32 I’ve seen this film so many times.

4:33 Jack Nicholson, he comes in close to the end

4:36 and I always remember the tragedy of the performance.

4:38 I always remember him doing… Every time he takes a drink,

4:41 he goes… For some reason, every time I’ve taken a drink in my life of anything,

4:45 I always feel the urge to go… So that’s always stayed with me.

4:51 It’s very interesting, you see tripping on TV a lot,

4:54 but you never see it as realistically well done as this, where you feel

4:58 the characters are actually going through quite

4:59 a lot of personal anguish and pain.

5:02 These prejudices are still prevalent in today’s society:

5:06 this fear of anyone who’s different or carries different opinions,

5:11 and it’s just a timeless piece of work.

5:14 And I always remember the way it ends.

5:16 I don’t want to give it away, but sudden suspension and then credits.