TOP TEN CRITERIONS BY ADAM YAUCH

(Cut & pasted from the Feb. 2008 Criterion Newsletter)

Adam Yauch is a founding member of the Beastie Boys. Recently he created a new division of his company Oscilloscope Laboratories called Oscilloscope Pictures (oscilloscopepictures.com) for the sole purpose of distributing films. He even hired two guys from ThinkFilm to come over to his new company. At first we were a little concerned that Adam intended to compete with Criterion, but then we thought it over and, honestly, we have been doing this for a long time and are not threatened by Adam’s new company. The groundbreaking DVD The Beastie Boys Video Anthology is currently available from the Criterion Collection. So right there that proves we have the upper hand.

1. Seven Samurai
C’mon, I gotta tell why this movie is good? You tell me!
2. Walkabout
Saw this one when I was in junior high school and it stayed with me. Glad to see it in the collection.
3. Nights of Cabiria
I don’t know what to write. I just love this movie.
4. Yojimbo
I guess you have figured out by now that I am really not going to review any of the films that I picked.
5. Sanjuro
But I do like the folks up at the Criterion Collection. Those are my people up in there.
6. Rushmore
They are a really great team that’s into some bugged-out, esoteric shit.
7. And God Created Woman
Peter is like the bigwig. He’s the head honcho.
8. The Harder They Come
Susan has her ear to the street. She always looks for some interesting stuff to put out.
9. Rashomon
When I was hanging out up there Heather was working on the audio. But now she switched over to some other department.
10. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Sometimes I get free DVDs from Criterion, but not always. I wanted to get one of each, you know, like the whole collection, but they said, “No, Adam, we don’t do that.”