Oscar Isaac

“This is Last Temptation of Christ, which I don't have on Blu-ray. This, I remember the hysteria that happened when this came out. And I grew up in this evangelical household, so I remember being in the video store, walking with my dad and then him seeing this on the stand and him just smacking it. But now I get to pick it up. But then he and I did watch it years later and he was like, "That's a very amazing movie about Christ." It really is a real meditation on the actual… what it cost Christ to make this sacrifice. And I just love it, and I love Willem in it, and it's hard to beat Harvey Keitel as, like, a Judas from Brooklyn. "Hey, Jesus! Come on, I got a deal for ya."”

“Rushmore. I mean, this was right before I went off to do my actings, this Wes Anderson film… I loved Bottle Rocket. I thought it was incredible. And then when Wes did Rushmore, it kind of blew up into this whole other level of incredible expression. And Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray in it. Bill Murray is so funny and sad. I just love this movie.”

“The Fisher King, Terry Gilliam movie. Love this movie. It's so wild and so out there. Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges just at their most electric and dynamic. And I remember watching this… I was quite young when I watched it, I probably shouldn't have watched it when I watched it because it was a weird psychedelic experience for an 11 year old. But, yeah, what an incredible movie.”

“Bob Dylan, Dont Look Back. I had seen this before doing Inside Llewyn Davis, but this was one that I went back to. All the stuff that Llewyn Davis wasn't experiencing in his life, watching from afar, was this. Such a fun movie.”

“Okay, cabrón. It's my guy. Pan's Labyrinth. I had just done a film and was in Toronto and… Toronto, the film festival, and Guillermo was there as well for Pan's Labyrinth, and that was our first introduction to each other. I remember him punching me in the shoulder and being like, "Hola!" and… I remember I cornered him and I was like, "We should do something about Federico García Lorca." And he's like, "I kind of just did in Pan's Labyrinth, in some kind of way." I was like, "Yeah, you're right." But I was so moved by the way that he uses fantastical expression to talk about something very real and very painful, like the Spanish Civil War. And then, of course, these quintessential, iconic creatures that he created that feel like they've always been a part of our psyche and somehow you're like, "Oh, yeah, of course, the guy with the eyes in the hands. Somehow I know that figure, even though I've never seen it before." And it's just such incredible visual poetry.”

“Well, there's this little movie called Inside Llewyn Davis that I guess I should probably mention. Yeah, this was a movie that I was in. And it was the first time I got to play a lead part in a film, and it happened to be this incredible masterpiece that I got to be a part of, and getting to see the bros work and the way that they work and the kind of effortless ease that they have with it and the flow and the… the fact that it really felt, for the first time, like we were all a team building something together, and also getting to play music and getting to live in that time and that place, it was one of the great blessings of life. So funny and sad, which I guess is my jam, I'm realizing.”

“Kurosawa's Dreams. This was so wild. I mean, granted, I was very high when I watched it for the first time. But I think I would have gotten high just watching it, with how wild this thing is. Still the image of those men on the mountain in the snowstorm, so thrilling and bizarre and mournful. And then Marty as Van Gogh. That's pretty great. I've watched this so many times. So high.”

“Throne of Blood is my favorite Shakespeare on film and, ironically, it has none of Shakespeare's dialogue in it. But there's something about the way that he cracked open Macbeth and, of course, setting it in feudal Japan and just all of that imagery, it just… it all makes sense suddenly. The witches, the supernatural element, the idea… and Toshiro Mifune at his absolute most vicious and incredible, and the gravity that he has in this, it's astounding. I've watched this so many times and I can never get enough of it.”

“The Tree of Life. God, I love this movie. This movie made me weep uncontrollably. I love Terrence Malick, of course, but there was something about this, and my dear friend Jessica Chastain, what she did in it was so incredible, and the Book of Job is my favorite book of the Bible. No, it's such a… Some say it's the most ancient book, and it's so powerful. And the way that Terry approached it, in setting it in the '50s, and I know a lot of people saw it at the time and were like, "And dinosaurs now?" when it suddenly goes to that, and that's the feeling of reading the Book of Job, when this guy's suffering and asking, "Why, why?" And then God shows him creation and says, "Why not? You're a part of creation. You're not separate from creation." And the way that he weaves that into this beautiful dream of this boyhood… these boyhood memories, it's so powerful. I remember walking out and… and calling Jessica and saying, "Oh my God. I'm so proud of you. This is incredible."”

“La Llorona, Jayro Bustamante, a fellow Chapín, Guatemalan, incredible director and I've not seen this Criterion version of the film yet. Really excited to see this.”

“Pinocchio. This is the… It's the double-header: Pinocchio, Frankenstein, they're telling similar stories about really fucked-up dads. What a marvel of artistry, again from Guillermo del Toro.”

“Raging Bull on 4K. What can one say else about Raging Bull, other than I need to have it?”

“You Can Count on Me. You guys have this on 4K? That's crazy. Mark Ruffalo in this, it's a perfect performance. And Kenny Lonergan, This Is Our Youth, his play, was one of the first plays I did, in Florida, in a little, small theater, and I couldn't believe someone could write that truthfully. It was so funny and acidic. And then to see him do that on film here. Laura Linney's incredible. Rory Culkin. As someone who loves his sister so much, to have that relationship so beautifully portrayed, it's great. Mine.”

“I'll just talk about this briefly because I've– this is a very early purchase that I made. This Cassavetes is fundamental, particularly A Woman Under the Influence. And Peter Falk in this is incredible and heartbreaking and so funny as well. The energy of this thing is something that I'm always… I always get inspired by watching this.”