Ben Gibbards

“The Exterminating Angel. I'm a huge Buñuel fan. I don't have this one. I love his films, especially these films that are the very kind of absurdist, kind of surrealist ones, because they feel as if you're kind of like watching a Dalí painting come to life. They're just totally wild.”

“Old Joy. Kelly Reichardt is quite literally my favorite filmmaker working today. This film is such a beautiful depiction of male friendship, and there are just these wonderful moments of watching these two men who once were very connected try to reconnect. I've been wanting to work with her for years, so Kelly, if you're watching, hit me up. I want to work with you.”

“Take Out. This is a film that I came to be aware of rather recently, and this film follows a Chinese takeout bike delivery guy as he's trying to make up a bunch of money that some loan sharks have lent him. It's just a wonderful film. It's heartbreaking, but it's this very cinéma vérité, very handheld, DV-shot film that feels very real and very visceral. It's become one of my favorite films. I'm going to take this one.”

“Brute Force. I love Jules Dassin. What I love about his films—Rififi being a perfect example—is using this almost Hollywood-style filmmaking but then interjecting this European, almost pre-New Wave kind of element into his films. This is an early example of that, and one I don't have, so I'm going to take it.”

“This is Le Havre, probably not how you say it, but it's a film by Aki Kaurismäki. He tells these just very interesting, economical stories. They're always very heartfelt, very funny. This is a more recent film of his, which I do not own, so I'm going to take this one.”

“Recently Criterion had a 50% off sale and I took that opportunity to grab the three films package of his.”

“Monterey Pop, the complete Monterey Pop. Seeing the reaction of people at this show, these West Coast hippie types just losing their mind to Otis Redding, something that was really impactful to me when I first saw it. And so I got to take this.”

“Another one of my favorite series that he did is this DVD down here called the Proletariat Trilogy. These three films have become three of my favorite movies in the last couple years. I have to give a shout out to my friend Melissa Messer for first showing me Shadows in Paradise, which has jumped into my top 10.”

“Streetwise. This one was shot in Seattle, where I live, in the early '80s, and it follows a number of homeless youth through the city. It's a really beautiful film, it's a really important film. This is kind of a subject that's near and dear to my heart because my sister has worked in youth homelessness for a long time. It's also a really interesting artifact of what my city was like in the early '80s.”