Joel Kim Booster

“So this one is like this holds like a really special place in my heart. This is Philadelphia Story. I grew up, we were a Katharine Hepburn house down when I was growing up, and this is one of my favorites. I think like too, like I was so, I was such the little kid that like if the movie was in black and white, I was like, "No, thank you." I, it was really hard to convince me to watch a black and white movie because I was, you know, a '90s kid like that, but Philadelphia Story felt relevant to me at nine years old, and I think that's like sort of the beautiful like timelessness of this story and the performances specifically.”

“The Big Chill. This is the kind of movie that I want to make: big ensemble relationship drama, the reunion of it all, and these characters and the history that they have and the story that it weaves through that history is so fun to watch unfold. And I think like if I ever make something that's even as close to this good, I would be I would die a happy man for sure.”

“This one is I guess kind of newer to the Criterion Closet and one that I was a little surprised to see in here. This is The Others, one of my all-time favorite horror movies, and this holds a really special place in my heart because this was the movie that I first held a girl's hand during because she was scared, I was scared, but yeah, it was like my first middle school girlfriend, Kelsey, name redacted. Like, I probably remember that moment more than I remember anything else about the movie, but truly an incredible movie and like the coolest like twist endings, I think, for horror movies. You kind of see it coming now if it were made today, but back when I was 13, it really blew my mind.”

“Sound of Metal, such an incredible recent movie. I think, I mean, it obviously got some awards love in terms of nominations and stuff like that, but I still feel like a lot of people missed this when it when it first was released. Such an incredible performance from Riz Ahmed, and he also, I mean, and this is this is maybe not the point of being in here, but he's so hot in this movie, so hot. Like I dyed my hair blonde and people thought it was because I was having a gay midlife crisis, but in fact it was because of the Sound of Metal.”

“Couldn't stop in the closet without talking a little bit about Wong Kar-wai. In the Mood for Love is such a, one of his best. I think it's an incredible movie. I will say this is kind of a placeholder for me for Happy Together, which they are giving me on the way out. Happy Together specifically, if I can talk about that really quickly, is I think the first movie I ever saw that depicted love between two Asian men, and it was such a powerful movie for me to see at that point in my life because I'd just never seen that on film before. And it and like I feel like we do get lost in the sauce a little bit when we talk about representation and what it means and how important it is and all those things today, but I for me, like when I think about how powerful it can be to see yourself represented on screen, like that movie comes to mind immediately for me because it definitely, seeing yourself reflected in that way when you're not used to it, it can it's it's a real paradigm-shifting moment for, or it can be for a lot of people, and it was for me. So, In the Mood for Love certainly, but if you have time, check out Happy Together as well, please.”

“This is incredible. I did, I thought I would really struggle, but I'm I'm having such a good time and finding so many good ones like this. I just looked up and this is what I found: Hedwig and the Angry Inch. John Cameron Mitchell, one of my all-time favorite filmmakers and somebody that I definitely draw a huge amount of inspiration from. And I had the honor of being his husband in the Hulu show Shrill, which was such a full circle moment for me as an actor and as a writer, just like being that close in proximity to somebody who has shaped so much of my creative lens is, was, was really cool. And seeing this in here makes me so happy.”

“Okay, now it's time. I don't even know if this is going to fit in my bag, but this Godzilla sort of 15 Kaiju Classics. Now if you only have time for one, I'm definitely going to say Mothra vs. Godzilla is my favorite out of this crop. I grew up on these movies, like we would get them and like wear them out from Blockbuster Video, RIP, and I, Mothra was my favorite of these films. I don't know exactly why. I think there was like something, I don't know, like gentler about Mothra. I think like Mothra is, forgive me, gay-coded, and I think I sensed that as a little boy, and I just I love it.”