Mark Duplass

“This is really cool because, for anyone who follows me on social media, you’ll know that I’m a huge Criterion Channel fan. But Dekalog, Kieślowski, is not on the Criterion Channel, one of the few things that isn’t streaming. I was lucky enough to get introduced to this in 1995 at the University of Texas in Austin. We had a library that had really curated old VHS, and so I sat down and watched these really scratchy four-by-three VHS copies. And so now I’m going to get to see them cleaned up.”

“This is Lone Star by John Sayles, a period piece set on the border, and they do this incredible thing where, rather than do actual camera cuts as they go back and forth in time, they’ll set dress a whole restaurant. One half of the restaurant is set in modern day, the other half is set in the past. And, live, they’ll pan the camera over, do a lighting shift, and then you’ll pick up on the story line back there. Also, no spoilers, but incredible ending.”

“Flow. For me, it’s everything that I want democratized technology to do. When I look at a movie like Flow, and I see someone who’s a complete outlier in this industry and use the technology to make something on their computer, just with their sweat, hearts, and smarts at the center of it, and then it goes out and wins the Oscar, a very slow-paced, quiet, Sweet Movie about a feline journey. I just fucking love this movie. It was so sweet and it got me.”

“I have a feeling Jay picked this. Somebody’s laughing behind the camera right now, and I think that person was here when it happened, but I have to pick it. And what you need to know is that John Cassavetes is a hero of ours. He’s the model of everything I wanted to be, which was: act in Hollywood movies, take that money, blow it on your independent films that you make with your family and friends. So, John, you’re coming with us.”

“This is going to be a box-set kind of day for me. I have to do this. This is probably going to be a little obvious for you who have seen a lot of my small, intimate films, but this is The Before Trilogy by Richard Linklater. Why this is so special for me in particular is, when I was 18 years old, I had seen Slacker, I had been to all the Midnight screenings of Dazed and Confused, and this movie came out. I’ve been obsessed with these movies ever since.”

“Chantal Akerman. I first saw Jeanne Dielman when I was in film school, and I couldn’t believe how riveted I was by a three-hour movie that was just about the tiniest things, and it opened up the seed in my brain that the epically small could be what I do in film. It’s kind of at the cornerstone of what I do. And I think Chantal did that really well. In particular, those early movies, raw, expressive. Je Tu Il Elle is the early one that I really, really, really loved.”