Tracy Letts

“Kwaidan. This is a Japanese folk-horror omnibus, and it’s very beautiful, deeply beautiful film. It’s long, but, you know, it’s in four segments, so you could break it up over a couple of nights.”

“Do the Right Thing. The ’80s, underrated decade, as far as I’m concerned. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best movie of the ’80s. It’s just as vital now as it was when it was made. It’s a great film. Do the Right Thing.”

“Hoop Dreams. I’m given to superlatives, but I think it’s the best sports movie ever made. I think it’s the best movie of the ’90s. I think it’s the best Chicago movie. Can’t lose with Hoop Dreams.”

“Berlin Alexanderplatz. This is 15 hours long. But you want to be a movie person, don’t you? That’s why you’re watching the Criterion Closet video. So I suggest, if you want to be a movie person, you turn off the streaming and you put this on and put on some pants and sit down on the couch and take your dissonance like a man.”

“Westerns, I love westerns. Winchester ’73. Anthony Mann western with Jimmy Stewart.”

“Red River. Howard Hawks, John Wayne, Montgomery Clift.”

“Jazz. I’m a jazz guy. ’Round Midnight. Dexter Gordon. You get to see a lot of great jazz musicians in this. Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherson, Cedar Walton. You get to see these guys play and play whole songs. It’s a movie that is about jazz and actually lets them play the songs.”

“And Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser. Great documentary. Amazing artist. Watch that.”

“Choose Me. Sometimes Criterion confirms me. This is a movie I’ve been toting around for twenty years or longer and trying to get people to watch, and then Criterion came out with the disc and I was like, “See, I knew this was a great movie.” Another great ’80s film. And some people think Alan Rudolph was just an Altman knockoff, but he wasn’t. He had his own thing going on, and that’s very apparent in Choose Me. It’s a lot of fun.”

“Love Jones. Sometimes Criterion introduces a movie to you. I did not know this movie at all. And I was just blown away. It’s such a… such a beautiful, tough… It’s a romantic comedy, but it’s also a really tough movie. And it’s a great Chicago movie, which is important to me. So Love Jones, a real discovery.”

“I want to say one more thing about… Where’s Mr. Arkadin? Mr. Arkadin, Orson Welles. This is an amazing thing that Criterion does. So, when I was a kid, different versions of this would be on TV and you might watch it, but you wouldn’t know which version you’re getting. There are different versions of it. You know, with Welles’s history, it was always chopped up and there were several different versions. Criterion, in this box, gives you three different versions and kind of a road map to how they each got put together and why they are the way they are. And they’re all great. They’re all different. They’re all the same. They’re all a great movie. But it’s just… it’s one of the great things about physical media. There’s no other way to kind of get the package of all three versions of Mr. Arkadin, if you’re the kind of person who needs that. And I am. I mean, he’s one of the greatest artists America has ever produced, and so we should absolutely have this kind of record of his work.”

“And The Ranown Westerns, directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott. My wife and I watched these, we watched them one at a time, one a week for about five weeks till we knocked them all out. It’s just… The feeling I get when I put these on, it’s just – you wrap yourself up in a blanket on the couch and you watch these things and you just feel really good and very warm and comforted and safe.”