Richard Gadd

“Okay, I’ve got to go here to Happiness by Todd Solondz. I remember first seeing this when I was at university. It kind of blew my mind. It’s very hard to sum up the plot of this. Bunch of misfits shuffling their way through life in really sort of very dark and very, very idiosyncratic ways. Some of the storylines, some plot lines, I couldn’t believe. It was very much a sort of artistic coming-of-age film for me, in the sense that I didn’t quite realize that film, TV, all these kinds of things could go to these depths. There’s a particular scene in it, which I won’t take us through, where I remember watching it, and actually the kind of sweat and the tingles went up the back of my neck. But this goes to some shocking places, but it never, ever loses sight of the human life behind it all. So that goes straight into the bag.”

“Memories of Murder, Bong Joon Ho. Parasite’s a ten out of ten for me. But this, somehow, it was a 10.1 out of 10. It was just incredible. When I describe the plot of Memories of Murder to people, it’s a detective trying to solve the crime of a serial killer, and a lot of people sort of feel like that’s a plot they’ve seen before. But the way he does it, the frustration you feel emanating out of the camera, it’s got huge satire at the heart of it: corruption in the police force, the damage that incompetence does to victims. So one of my favorite films, one of my favorite directors, that goes straight into the bag.”

“Trainspotting, probably my most favorite film of all time. I remember when I sat down to do Baby Reindeer, I really wanted to have voice-over in it, and so I almost watched every film that had voice-over, of prominence, and Trainspotting gave it this exhilaration, this pushing forward in time. It takes you from one scene and it throws you to the next, and it all feels like an adrenaline rush, it all feels like you’re on drugs when you’re watching it. It captures the euphoria in amongst the degradation. I think there’s a version of Trainspotting that a lot of directors would take, and it would be social realist and it would be bleak, but Danny Boyle keeps that sense of play alive. But it’s all earned. It’s all borne out of character, like the famous bit where Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” plays and he sinks into the carpet. All of that is just… It’s directorial vision at its very best, and none of it’s cynical. I think a lot of new directors, I feel like they come in and they put the trickery onto a show that doesn’t call for it. But every single piece of flair in this film is earned. What a film.”

“I can’t not go to a Scorsese film and I’ll go to… I gotta go to Raging Bull. I don’t think this is too controversial, but I think De Niro as Jake La Motta is the best on-screen performance of all time. And of course, you can’t forget Joe Pesci in this film as well. All the acting is top-notch. You realize you’re kind of… That’s the beauty of acting when you actually get lost and you think you’re watching real life. That’s what those two do the best. There’s the scene where he’s punching the wall and he’s going ballistic, and you feel everything in your own hands as you’re watching it.”

“I gotta bring out another Scorsese: The Last Waltz. The thing that I love most is, it does have talking heads and it does have… it does have all the band speaking about why they decided to call it a day and all that kind of stuff, but really he just lets the music play. That’s the thing with Scorsese: I never, ever feel like he gets in the way of the story he’s about to tell. I never feel he put something on to it. I feel, everything he does as a director, which is why he’s the greatest, is that he pulls… “How do I pull this story out and honor it in the correct way?” And with this, I think it would have been so easy to splice it up and have talking heads every two seconds. But really, he just lets the music play and, in a way, I watch it and I feel almost… I almost feel quite emotional, just watching this, this exquisite band play their last. And that’s the beauty of Scorsese. He had all this footage in the world and he just lets it breathe in all the most beautiful ways.”

“Oh, is this Gimme Shelter? Is this that Rolling Stones one where the… Yeah. Oh my God, this is another amazing music documentary. I’ve realized doing this that I’m a sucker for a music documentary, actually. I think it’s often spoken about as being the end of the ’60s and peace and love and all this stuff, this horrific act happening at the very heart of one of the… of one of the gigs of one of the bands that made the ’60s what it was. It’s so much more than a music documentary in that sense. And it’s an absolute must-watch, so Gimme Shelter, check it out.”

“Easy Rider. I’ve seen this film so many times. Jack Nicholson, he comes in close to the end and I always remember the tragedy of the performance. I always remember him doing… Every time he takes a drink, he goes… For some reason, every time I’ve taken a drink in my life of anything, I always feel the urge to go… So that’s always stayed with me. It’s very interesting, you see tripping on TV a lot, but you never see it as realistically well done as this, where you feel the characters are actually going through quite a lot of personal anguish and pain. These prejudices are still prevalent in today’s society: this fear of anyone who’s different or carries different opinions, and it’s just a timeless piece of work. And I always remember the way it ends. I don’t want to give it away, but sudden suspension and then credits.”