Ayo Edebiri

“Okay, going to take High and Low. I've been seeing this like popping off again on Letterboxd, which I think is good 'cause this is just a truly masterful film to me, and I think Kurosawa is like so amazing. I watched this, it felt like 50 times. It just all felt like a dance, like the camera is dancing, but also like the actors are doing their own sort of choreography, and it all just is like one beautiful step to the point where I was like, was he a dancer? And he wasn't, he did Kendo, which I think, you know, there's there's movement in that. But yeah, I love, love, love the blocking of this movie. And also Tsutomu Yamazaki, he has this moment of physicality at the end of the movie that it's like high theater to me. It's like one of the most beautiful things ever when he's up against—spoiler alert—when he's up against the window and they're having their final confrontation and he just makes this like one motion with his body that I think about a lot. So yeah.”

“Charade, absolute fave. I love a heist and when I found out about this movie I was just like, I was like, oh, perfect, literally perfect. Two hot people doing a heist, but it's like very goofy and very silly and there's really fun set pieces, and it's just got that like '60s wit. And I have it, so I won't take it, but I love this movie.”

“I'm going down because I saw Rushmore and I really and I want to take Bottle Rocket. I love this movie because it is like the seeds of a director who you know is going to be great, but also it's just like a movie made by pals, and that to me is heaven. That's—I love when guys be dudes, I love when friends make movies together. And it's not as like polished yet as like Rushmore, like you're not seeing him totally like knowing, I don't know, who he's going to be, but it, but it's really wonderful, and the performances are wonderful, and the writing's wonderful. Can we like get like Owen Wilson back on the keyboard? What's up?”

“Pure sexiness, pure Chicago. Love a heist, as I said, and the movie is Thief.”

“I'm taking The Funeral because I already have Tampopo. Juzo Itami is one of my favorite directors ever, and I think of also all the male directors who are like, my wife is my muse, I'm like, he's the best because he's not like torturing her, he's like, you're gonna fix up a ramen shop or a supermarket or like take down the Yakuza. Also like his path is really cool, from somebody who was like a working actor for a really long time into becoming a director. I think he's the absolute GOAT.”

“I love To Sleep with Anger. I mean, really taps at the core of like African American surrealist imagery in a way that I love, but I'm very, very glad that this has been re-restored and remastered 'cause I think this movie is worth hundreds of watches. And also shout out to Abbott 'cause Sheryl Lee Ralph is in this and is just amazing in this. Everybody's amazing in this. I love this movie.”

“Eyimofe. Eyimofe is a movie by the Esiri brothers, which I loved. They're two Nigerian brothers and filmmakers and they made a gorgeous, gorgeous movie about contemporary Nigeria and these intersecting stories. And saw it three times in theaters, like once by myself and then with a friend who's also half-Nigerian and then with my father. And my father was like, "I liked it," and that's a huge, huge review from a immigrant father. Eyimofe, also known as This Is My Desire in English. Amazing, amazing film, could not recommend highly enough.”