I’ve loved the Criterion Collection since the summer of 2007 when I got The Red Shoes, Seven Samurai, and Ace in the Hole in a Barnes & Noble buy-two-get-one-free sale. Not only did the home video label allow me to watch a wide range of new films — they also provided so many special features to obsess over as a child who wanted to be a filmmaker.
My love has only increased over the last five years since they became the rare company to hear critiques — including my own — and actually improve. Their vision of the canon used to be so limited and now it has expanded for the benefit of us all!
For many years, their Criterion Closet videos have shown celebrities — often people who are at the offices for one of their films — making selections of the Criterion releases that have meant the most to them or that they most want to check out. It’s such a joy to watch people geek out about movies! And so I’ve gathered all the videos from queer people with some thoughts on their selections.
Agnès Varda
As I discussed a couple weeks ago, yes, Agnès Varda was bisexual. She was also a fan of Girls! I love listening to Varda talk about art and her selections from Campion to Kiarostami to Lena Dunham are excellent. Also The Marriage of Maria Braun is the film that caused me to fall in love with Fassbinder’s work.
Favorite pick: An Angel at My Table (1990)
Andrew Haigh
Visiting the closet with actress Charlotte Rampling, the director of Weekend and All of Us Strangers has such fun banter with his 45 Years lead actress. His picks are also very British! Which I say with minimal judgment! How could a gay British boy not shout out Merchant/Ivory and Sunday Bloody Sunday I suppose.
Favorite pick: Black Narcissus (1947)
Aubrey Plaza
Visiting the closet with her late husband and collaborator Jeff Baena, Plaza’s picks feel very in line with her creative voice from Ghost World to Scenes from a Marriage to Harold and Maude to 3 Women to picking I Married a Witch based on the title and cover art — something I also did once.
Favorite pick: Safe (1995)
Ayo Edebiri
Ayo is a true cinephile!!! This is one of the best of these videos not just because of the picks — which are excellent — but because of how Ayo talks about movies.
Favorite pick: Charade (1963) or To Sleep with Anger (1990) (don’t make me choose)
Bowen Yang
I also really love how the picks are talked about here. And as someone whose favorite John Waters film is Multiple Maniacs, thrilled to see that represent the director. Also very relatable how in the final moments he snags two huge box sets.
Favorite pick: The Complete Films of Agnès Varda
Charlotte Wells
This gets extra points for her quoting Brief Encounter: “I’ve fallen in love. I’m an ordinary woman. I didn’t know such violent things could happen to ordinary people.” And for the confirmation that the final shot of Aftersun was inspired by La Chambre. (I hope Criterion sent her the Chantal Akerman Blu-Ray set once they finally rescued those early films from the Eclipse label.)
Favorite pick: Eclipse 19 Chantal Akerman in the 70s which is now Out of Print so get this even better Akerman set instead
Cheryl Dunye
The first of many closet jokes on this list! So cool hearing Cheryl Dunye talk about Hollis Frampton and the influence of video art and experimental cinema on her work. And her picks overall might be the very best since she snags the Akerman, Varda, and Marlon Riggs sets. Truly cannot put into words how happy it makes me that The Watermelon Woman is finally in the Criterion Collection.
Favorite pick: The Signifyin’ Works of Marlon Riggs
Desiree Akhavan
In this video, Desiree Akhavan talks about taking a directing class with Ira Sachs — more from him later — and being introduced to the films of John Cassavetes. She also talks about the influence of Safe on The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Perfect video.
Favorite pick: Do the Right Thing (1989)
Elegance Bratton
I love the shoutouts here to Douglas Sirk and Melvin Van Peebles. It kind of feels passé to single out Rashomon among Kurosawa’s work but it remains my favorite and I appreciate what Bratton has to say about the film here. Also he shares that The Battle of Algiers is his favorite film of all time which given The Inspection is… interesting!
Favorite pick: The Battle of Algiers (1966) or Some Like It Hot (1959) (simply cannot choose)
Gregg Araki
This is one of those director videos where every pick together makes so much sense for the artist’s voice. Bringing Up Baby meets Twin Peaks Fire Walk with Me meets Pink Flamingos with a dash of Godard.. yeah I’ve seen The Doom Generation!
Favorite pick: Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Hari Nef
Leave it to a trans woman to pick some Almodóvar. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is among my favorites and a great pick along with so many other great choices like The Naked Kiss, Grey Gardens, and possibly my all-time favorite Criterion release: the restored edition of The Red Shoes. Also yes shoutout Design for Living, an incredible early throuple movie.
Favorite pick: The Red Shoes (1948)
Ira Sachs
Very relatable to call being in the Criterion Closet an erotic experience. This video also has some fun facts like how Sachs wanted to write about The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in college but Gena Rowlands wouldn’t send him a print so he wrote about Tati’s Playtime. He also shares that Little Men was inspired by Ozu’s I Was Born But… and Good Morning and a scene in Love Is Strange was inspired by a moment in Bergman’s The Magic Flute. Very good picks and a very good video from Passages director and Desiree Akhavan’s professor!
Favorite pick: Charulata (1964)
Isabel Sandoval
“This is the next best thing to transitioning” is an incredible way to start one of these. Picks like The Age of Innocence fit with the swooning romance of Isabel’s work! I also love the idea of spinning around and picking something at random.
Favorite pick: John Cassavetes Five Films or The Complete Films of Agnès Varda
Jaboukie Young-White and River L. Ramirez
A unique video since it’s five comics making their picks at the same time. I think only two are queer but correct me if I’m wrong. Not a ton of deep dives but everyone is having a good time!
Favorite pick: Some Like It Hot (1959)
Janelle Monáe
This is another unique one because icon Janelle Monáe kept her picks all on theme with Halloween. It’s like a fun little film school class on horror and horror-adjacent films taught by the hottest professor you could imagine.
Favorite pick: Eraserhead (1977)
Jenni Olson
I enjoy listening to Jenni talk about movies more than just about anyone. She has great picks here and I especially appreciate the choice of the Louis Malle documentaries Eclipse set, a collection I got when I was way too young that challenged me in the best way.
Favorite pick: Desert Hearts (1985)
Jeremy O. Harris
At eight minutes and nineteen seconds this is by far the longest of these videos, but it’s worth it. “There’s a lot of required to be gay in my opinion and a lot of that required reading is in movies. And a lot of those movies are weird and European.” Yes, agreed. Everyone should make their friends watch Teorema. Also love the reveal that he shares a birthday with the Marquis de Sade. This one is for the Geminis.
Favorite pick: Teorema (1968)
Joel Kim Booster
Despite starting the video saying he has bad taste, his picks are good! I am also thrilled and a bit surprised that The Others is now in the collection. And how could anyone not love The Philadelphia Story?
Favorite pick: In the Mood for Love (2000)
John Early
John Early has been in the Criterion Closet at least twice and I wish there was a video of his visit with Stress Positions director Theda Hammel but we do have this one with Jacqueline Novak. A fun, chaotic energy here and I do love that they stumble upon one of my favorite queer horror movies: The Uninvited. Also it’s the movie I love most that I’m least likely to recommend but I agree that Fat Girl is such a special movie and I’m sorry if you watch it because we’re saying that.
Favorite pick: Fat Girl (2001)
John Waters
The Blob to 8½ is so very John Waters and this video does not disappoint with his wide range of picks. I do not share his love for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls but something I love about Waters’ taste is it’s always a mix of work I love and work I do not.
Favorite pick: 8½ (1963)
Julia Fox
Pretty sure she is the only person to enter the closet with a briefcase, but she really gets points from me for crying as she talks about Almodóvar. She also does a random pick and ends up with Ugetsu which is such an incredible film to stumble upon!
Favorite pick: All About My Mother (1999)
Julio Torres
Overall such good picks from the creator of Fantasmas, one of the few TV shows I’ve seen in recent years that has made me feel the possibility of art. A mix of humor and horror and idosyncracity that fits right in with his own work. I love the way Where Is the Friend’s Home? and After Hours become in conversation with one another.
Favorite pick: Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Karyn Kusama
Obsessed with Karyn Kusama going with a theme as specific as “how do we address power, what do we do with power.” Rewatching this video — and watching Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers for the first time this month — has reminded me I need to get the Criterion edition of The Damned because I’ve owned the same very old DVD for many years and I’m sure the Criterion version is gorgeous. God I love her selections so much and this is probably the video with the most choices I haven’t seen.
Favorite pick: Three Films by Luis Buñuel
Katya Zamolodchikova
I didn’t realize Katya was such a cinephile and this was such a delight to watch a few weeks ago. Starting with a Tarkovsky film and eventually making it to Todd Solondz’s Happiness does feel right for her though.
Favorite pick: Querelle (1982)
Lee Daniels
The Fellini set that Daniels starts with is going to be my next big Criterion purchase. Also more Querelle love here! Daniels describes his taste/inspirations as “a little euro, a little ghetto, a little homo” but then also throws in The Piano a movie that I loved so fiercely for so many years and really need to revisit. (The Paperboy should get a Criterion release.) Woah who said that?
Favorite pick: Essential Fellini
Lily Gladstone and Erica Tremblay
I’m obsessed with Lily Gladstone and Hirokazu Kore-eda becoming pals on the Cannes Jury. After Life was the movie I watched the night before my 30th birthday and it’s a really special one. I haven’t seen Gladstone’s first two picks so I need to change that, but once Erica Tremblay arrives her first pick is Certain Women and God do I love that film and Gladstone in it. Also very cute that they pick movies for each other.
Favorite pick: Certain Women (2016)
Maya Hawke
Imagine your dad was Ethan Hawke. Seems like fun! Their banter here is very sweet and I am also very much a Children of Paradise missionary. I’m dead at the reveal that Ethan Hawke took Uma Thurman to see Husbands on one of their first dates.
Favorite pick: Children of Paradise (1945)
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane says his husband loves Rififi and that reminds me the two of them happened to be in my theatre for Black Bag. I bet his husband loved it! We’ve had Beyond the Valley of the Dolls gays but finally a Valley of the Dolls gay. I love how many of these he hasn’t seen and he’s just taking based on actors and vibes.
Favorite pick: Mikey and Nicky (1976)
St. Vincent
For some reason St. Vincent isn’t really on my radar anymore, but I was obsessed with her in high school and high school me would’ve melted at her saying, “Oh! Do we have The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant?” I think we should get an update on whether she watched the Chantal Akerman films and what she thought of them, because pretty sure based on her other picks she fell in love.
Favorite pick: Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978
Todd Haynes
More beautiful Brief Encounter love! Everyone watch Brief Encounter! I always love when people pull out films to mention but then are like “I already have this” like he does. This video could be an hour long and I’d be happy.
Favorite pick: In a Lonely Place (1950)
Trace Lysette
Moonstruck and Love Jones are such incredible romance picks. Also Thelma and Louise lets be honest. I hope Trace did end up watching Satyricon with a joint because that sounds like a perfect experience.
Favorite pick: All About My Mother (1999)
Want to make some purchases of your own? The Barnes & Noble 50% off Criterion sale is now through July 27. Can’t afford to buy? Subscribe to The Criterion Channel or go to your local library!!! The library is how I watched most Criterions as a kid.
I loooooove this
You guys are the best. This is so wonderful (also thank you for including me!)