🎞️Ari Aster's Criterion Closet picks (his second visit, 2025)

second closet visit, july 2025. fourteen of the nineteen he picked, the ones I'd actually push on someone. his words, not mine on the reasoning.

Winchester '73 (1950) - Anthony Mann

The Parallax View (1974) - Alan J. Pakula

seventies paranoia thriller, his words not mine on loving this one

Lacombe, Lucien (1974) - Louis Malle

Revanche (2008) - Götz Spielmann

Austrian, Oscar nominated back in 2009. quieter than everything else here

Straw Dogs (1971) - Sam Peckinpah

the one people still argue about. he mentioned it in the same breath as Parallax View

Ace in the Hole (1951) - Billy Wilder

A Face in the Crowd (1957) - Elia Kazan

Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee

The Grifters (1990) - Stephen Frears

start here if you only watch one noir off this list

You Can Count on Me (2000) - Kenneth Lonergan

he said no one writes dialogue like Kenneth Lonergan. hard to disagree

The Wages of Fear (1953) - Henri-Georges Clouzot

The Last Picture Show (1971) - Peter Bogdanovich

Targets (1968) - Peter Bogdanovich

connects directly to Eddington, his own film. Boris Karloff's last great role

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Coen Brothers

closed the visit on this one, Coen brothers at their most controlled

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