John Darnielle

“Stephen Sondheim Company. It's kind of to me Sondheim is most challenging if you're not a person who's already drawn to show tunes. Some of these ones will absolutely make you run screaming if you're an anti-show tunes guy, but then you can sit with it, you'll be very happy you did.”

“Salvatore Giuliano, what is this? In July 5th 1950, Sicilian Bandit Salvatore Giuliano's bullet riddled corpse is found face down in a courtyard in Castelvetrano, a handgun rifle by his side. Friend, honestly, if you don't relate to that description immediately with a feeling of extreme desire, you and I are different people.”

“This is Sir Laurence Olivier doing Richard III. I'm going to take the controversial position that Lawrence Olivier probably does a really good Richard III. I'm a big defender of Shakespeare. These players are astonishing. Olivier, come on now.”

“This is the Shadow Warrior, Kurosawa. He also is one of those great artists who is still trying to find new ways to do what he does in his old age and is embracing Grand themes. Speaking of Shakespeare, he's super Shakespearean, he's very into the big Shakespearean questions of life and how she'll be lived and how do we atone for past actions... I will absolutely watch Kagemusha and so should you.”

“Do I need Youth of the Beast? Oh man, come on, what are you trying to do to me here? When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival Yakuza gangs, Tokyo's Underworld explodes with violence. It's now in my bag, there is room for it, I'm putting it there.”

“I'm going to put The Ballad of Narayama there and bid you a good day from the offices of the Criterion Collection.”

“However on the other hand we have here a thing that says the Samurai Trilogy. Do I really have to explain to you that I'm taking home the Samurai Trilogy? This is Hiroshi Inagaki installing the inevitable Toshiro Mifune, one of the greatest actors of all time. Mifune is the other side of that where you can bring a face to the camera that the camera just naturally can't resist.”

“Let's see here, The Signifying Works of Marlon Riggs. There has never been a filmmaker like Marlon Riggs, unapologetic gay black man who defied a culture of silence and Shame to speak his truth. I'll absolutely be checking that out, that sounds great.”

“It's the Bruce Lee collection. I think about Bruce Lee a lot because when I was a child Bruce Lee was known by every kid on my block to be the coolest man alive. My children are Asian American and my younger son when he first saw Bruce Lee was extraordinarily excited to see this guy. You can just watch one of the greatest martial arts artists of all time wailing on dudes and that's what I like so I'm taking Bruce Lee collection.”