Filmed 2025-04-11
Paul W. Downs
The writer, director and actor
Criterion's own upload · on criterion.com
The writer, director, actor, and cocreator of Hacks talks about how Being John Malkovich informed his sense of storytelling, praises Vanya on 42nd Street as one of the best productions of Anton Chekhov’s work, and admires Steven Soderbergh’s unique approach to filmmaking.
What they took
5 cases, in the order Criterion lists them. None of them is a box set, so the count of choices and the count of films reached are the same.
Least-picked choice here: Vanya on 42nd Street, taken by nobody else.
Table view
| Chose | Director | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Election | Alexander Payne | 1999 |
| 2 |  Being John Malkovich | Spike Jonze | 1999 |
| 3 |  Vanya on 42nd Street | Louis Malle | 1994 |
| 4 |  Tootsie | Sydney Pollack | 1982 |
| 5 |  Traffic | Steven Soderbergh | 2000 |
United States accounts for five of their five single films.
Closest taste
Jaccard overlap against every other visit, counted on what came off the shelf rather than on films, so a shared box set counts once rather than as the films inside it.
403 visits compared · 31 filmed-together pairs excluded
Nobody close enough to name
A visit needs at least 5 choices to be compared at all, and a pair at least 2 in common to count as close. Nothing this visit took was taken twice over by anybody else.
Their decades
Their five single films with a release year on record, against where every guest's single-film picks land. Box sets are left out of both sides, so the two bars measure the same thing.