Elijah Wood’s Closet Picks

0:00 I’m Elijah Wood.

0:01 I’m here in the Criterion Closet.

0:03 I can’t believe that I get this incredible honor.

0:08 The Vanishing, George Sluizer.

0:11 This is an oft-recommended horror film.

0:14 This premise of someone being taken in broad daylight,

0:18 whilst pumping gas on a road trip

0:20 and then ultimately meeting who that killer is,

0:23 who that psychopath is, in such a chilling way, is just… It’s a masterpiece.

0:28 Iñárritu’s Amores perros.

0:30 The thing that I think about when I

0:31 think about this movie is the Control Machete song,

0:35 “Si Señor,” it is such a dope moment in the film.

0:38 It’s such a punk-rock movie.

0:41 And really the sort of explosive way that his career began.

0:46 I love this film.

0:47 David Fincher’s The Game.

0:49 I feel like no one talks about this movie in the way that they should.

0:53 This idea of an immersive game that sort of challenges you

0:59 and you think is… someone’s chasing you or someone’s after you.

1:04 It’s this very elaborate ruse that Sean Penn’s

1:07 character gets for his brother in the movie, played by Michael Douglas.

1:11 It’s awesome and surprising and, yeah, one of my favorite Fincher films.

1:16 Antonioni’s Blow-Up.

1:18 Herbie Hancock, the way I came to this movie was actually through its music.

1:22 There’s a great song on this that is

1:25 very identifiable from the Deee-Lite song “Groove

1:27 Is in the Heart.” So that opening

1:30 bassline… …that comes from a song from Blow-Up.

1:36 This movie’s great.

1:37 It’s… was later sort of remade as Blow Out.

1:41 In this case, this was not about sounds, it’s about footage.

1:45 It’s about a photographer that accidentally captures a murder,

1:48 and this sort of world that he descends

1:51 into in trying to decipher what that was.

1:54 It’s awesome.

1:56 Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser.

1:59 I didn’t even realize this was on Criterion, so I’m very stoked about this.

2:04 This movie’s great.

2:05 An incredible, intimate portrait of Thelonious Monk.

2:08 Fly-on-the-wall revealing of one of the great artists in jazz.

2:12 The footage is gorgeous.

2:13 And if you want to get into jazz, even if you don’t care about jazz,

2:17 that’s the beautiful thing about documentaries,

2:18 is it doesn’t matter if you have a preexisting interest in a subject,

2:22 you just immediately dive into a world that’s not your own.

2:27 And you might have come out the other end having learned something,

2:30 certainly, or be invested in something.

2:33 In this case, it’s Monk and his incredible piano playing.

2:35 So good.

2:37 Jonathan Glazer.

2:38 I mean, every… How can every movie be such a masterwork?

2:42 Jonathan Glazer’s… Birth I’m talking about.

2:45 So, Jonathan Glazer got his start in music videos, as many great filmmakers do.

2:51 Certainly filmmakers from the ’90s and the early 2000s.

2:56 And this film is like… It’s sort of got a real Polanski-meets-Kubrick vibe.

3:05 It’s chilling and haunting, and it keeps you guessing.

3:09 It’s such a great film.

3:11 I adore it.

3:13 Speaking of Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut.

3:16 It’s one of those films that, if it’s on TV, I have to watch it.

3:19 There’s an atmosphere to this movie that’s so special.

3:21 Even the way that characters speak,

3:23 the way that Tom Cruise speaks in this movie, everything’s a question.

3:26 Everything gets repeated.

3:27 It’s rhythmic and fascinating.

3:30 And, yeah, I’ve seen it innumerable times and I still can’t get enough.

3:34 It’s really awesome.

3:36 This is not a happy movie.

3:38 Todd Solondz’s Happiness.

3:41 I’ll never forget seeing this in the theater

3:43 and being really deeply disturbed by it,

3:46 but also utterly moved and impressed by the skills of the cast.

3:52 It’s such an extraordinary cast, particularly Philip Seymour Hoffman.

3:56 It’s one of his great performances, and that’s an amazing cover as well.

4:00 Speaking of disturbing, Haneke’s Funny Games.

4:04 That is not a party.

4:06 The opening credits sequence is such a great indication of where you’re at.

4:11 It’s a family on a drive to their country home,

4:14 and it gets interjected with super-intense metal, punk rock.

4:22 And you kind of go, “Ah, right.

4:24 I’m not safe here.” It is so upsetting and so wonderful,

4:30 but it’s not for the faint of heart.

4:31 It’s funny, I don’t get really freaked out by horror movies.

4:35 Horror doesn’t scare me because it’s often so of the imaginary world.

4:40 The horror that freaks me out are the things that humans do to other humans,

4:45 and they don’t necessarily have a reason for why they’re doing them.

4:48 And this is certainly a representation of that.

4:50 This Wes Anderson Archive, ten films over 25 years.

4:57 What a fascinating and amazing career,

4:59 especially watching someone develop their identity

5:02 over the course of this many years.

5:05 And with Bottle Rocket, it hasn’t quite started yet.

5:09 The Wes Anderson that we’ve come to know is not there,

5:11 but is there in many ways.

5:14 That’s still one of my favorite films.

5:16 I love that movie so much.

5:18 The relationship that Luke Wilson has with the housekeeper at the motel

5:23 is the most charming thing that you root for as an audience.

5:27 It is such a great caper of some real

5:31 average dudes that don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.

5:34 And then it’s been just an absolute joy from that moment on.

5:36 So, The Wes Anderson Archive.

5:39 This is dope.

5:40 It’s so cool.

5:43 I mean… Right, just literally… pin the tail on the donkey.

5:50 Oh!

5:52 It’s On the Waterfront.

5:54 I have never seen this, so… I’m letting you into my shameless now.

5:59 This is a legendary classic.

6:01 Now I’m motivated to see it.

6:03 Thank you, Criterion.