Joel Kim Booster

“This one holds a really special place in my heart. This is Philadelphia Story. I grew up, we were a Katharine Hepburn House down when I was growing up and this is one of my favorites. Philadelphia Story felt relevant to me at 9 years old and I think that's sort of the beautiful timelessness of this story and the performances specifically.”

“The Big Chill, this is the kind of movie that I want to make. Big ensemble relationship drama, the reunion of it all and these characters and the history that they have and the story that it weaves through that history is so fun to watch unfold. If I ever make something that's even as close to this good, I would die a happy man for sure.”

“This one is I guess kind of newer to the Criterion closet. This is The Others, one of my all-time favorite horror movies. This holds a really special place in my heart because this was the movie that I first held a girl's hand during because she was scared, I was scared. Truly an incredible movie and like the coolest twist endings. Back when I was 13 it really blew my mind.”

“Sound of Metal, such an incredible recent movie. I still feel like a lot of people missed this when it first was released. Such an incredible Performance from Riz Ahmed and he's so hot in this movie. I dyed my hair blonde and people thought it was because I was having a gay midlife Crisis but in fact it was because of the Sound of Metal.”

“This is what I found: Hedwig and the Angry Inch. John Cameron Mitchell, one of my all-time favorite filmmakers and somebody that I definitely draw a huge amount of inspiration from. I had the honor of being his husband in the Hulu show Shrill, which was such a full circle moment for me. Seeing this in here makes me so happy.”

“Couldn't stop in the closet without talking a little bit about Wong Kar-wai. In the Mood for Love is such a, one of his best. I will say this is kind of a placeholder for me for Happy Together. Seeing yourself reflected in that way when you're not used to it, it's a real paradigm-shifting moment. In the Mood for Love certainly, but if you have time check out Happy Together as well please.”

“I don't even know if this is going to fit in my bag but this Godzilla sort of 15 Kaiju Classics. If you only have time for one I'm definitely going to say Mothra versus Godzilla is my favorite out of this crop. I grew up on these movies. Mothra was my favorite of these films. I think Mothra is, forgive me, gay coded and I think I sensed that as a little boy and I just I love it.”