Michael Cera

“I'll start with Good Morning because this one kind of made a big impression on me and it was I think the first Ozu movie I have ever seen... There's a lot of fart humor in this movie actually which was unexpected... It's a pretty simple story of the kids want a television set to watch sumo wrestling and stuff... Postwar Japan and the parents are against it... The kids take a vow of silence against them to get their ways and they win and it's just a beautiful film.”

“The other movie that's really special to me that I wanted to mention is Close-Up and I guess probably it's a it's a very widely appreciated film but I think some people don't know it and I actually got some friends of mine to watch it one night some friends of mine asked me for a film recommendation I said watch Close-Up like there's no way you won't have a great time and they were like no we did kind of like was in the right vibe but anyway it's an incredible film and it's like t...”

“I also kind of wanted to just mention Tootsie since I saw it in here and didn't realize that it was coming out on Criterion and that's a great film... This incredible powerful director Sydney Pollack making this kind of seemingly light comedy but doing it in this really intelligent way... A friend of mine told me a Sydney Pollack quote that is a film, a good film should be two sides of a good argument and I think this movie is a good example of that.”

“This Allan King collection... I'm Canadian so I thought I should put a Canadian in there... This whole collection is incredible... The one that really got me is A Married Couple which is so funny and so heartbreaking at the same time... You're watching this real thing which is this marriage disintegrating in front of a camera... It sort of like a Real Life Scenes from a Marriage in a way... You're watching them try and fail at putting the pieces back together.”

“And then I was also gonna take WALL·E. Also quite, you know, silent, kind of a modern silent film almost, but very, very visual. So I think even my little baby boy might like this one.”

“I would like to talk about Hobson’s Choice a little bit... I did watch this sometime in the last year and I had such an amazing, magical viewing experience... It’s like a Disney movie almost. It’s, like, wall-to-wall orchestral music, flourishing every physical gesture, and Charles Laughton’s so incredible, but, oh, so are Brenda De Banzie, who’s his daughter, and John Mills. Oh my God. Those three are all so perfect in this perfect little movie.”

“Take The Mother and the Whore. It is, like, a long movie, so you make an afternoon of it. You make, like, a rainy afternoon of it with a friend. It’s so wonderful. The conversations and the dialogue. It’s just very voyeuristic and fun to get lost watching this movie.”

“My very, very, very favorite guy: Abbas Kiarostami, The Wind Will Carry Us. What an amazing movie. I’m so happy that Criterion is putting this out because it’s been hard to get a good version of and hard to find in general, and one of his most special. I mean, every Kiarostami movie is just a complete beautiful poem. But this is so, so amazing. For the longest time this has been, and it still is and will remain, my, like, desktop image on my laptop.”

“I will– yeah, I’ll just end with these two Sean Baker. 4K and the Blu-ray of Anora. I have not seen this movie, and I was– I’m just so ashamed of that. So that’s exciting.”

“And then while I’m there, down here in the Sean Baker corner, I’m gonna take Prince of Broadway by Sean Baker as well because I’ve also not seen this, and… Very important guy doing very, very, very special work in a very exciting and unusual way, finding his way through the trappings and the restrictions of making movies now... He’s just got it figured out, so love him.”

“So I was gonna take this Jacques Tati Complete, which is amazing. My son is three and a half... And I did start showing him some Charlie Chaplin stuff and he really liked it. And it’s great, I mean, if you have kids. There’s hardly any language, so there’s not a language barrier... But this is great because it’s like a cartoon almost. I was gonna show him Mr. Bean as well, so this’ll be a good… this will segue us into Mr. Bean.”

“Okay, we’ll do the Gregg Araki. Teen Apocalypse Trilogy. Love Gregg Araki. Wish he would hire me. I have to admit I have not seen Totally Fucked Up. I’m assuming that the stars… that ‘f***ed,’ I’m assuming that’s the word ‘fucked.’ But Nowhere is incredible. Anyway, Gregg Araki’s Apocalypse Trilogy.”

“Oh, right. I was gonna take 8½ too. I’ll pay for it. I’ll take the 4K / Blu-ray of 8½ because I love it. It was a great friend of mine’s favorite movie, who I love. And I’m gonna take it.”