By Ellie Simmers | Assistant Editor
Known for his love for all things music, especially his ever-growing vinyl collection, Critograph Editor-in-Chief, Jacob Clavijo, is sharing his growing affinity for cinema in this week’s Letterboxd Four Favorites. (Spoilers ahead!)
Clavijo’s first movie and his all-time favorite is the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally.
“I’m a sucker for a good rom-com, and that movie is like the ideal rom-com, right? There’s just something about it.” said Clavijo, going onto dive deeper into the themes of friendship, romance, and societal expectations.
When Harry Met Sally is the story of Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan), who, during their travel from Chicago to New York, debate whether or not sex ruins a friendship between a man and a woman, eleven years later, and they’re still no closer to finding the answer.
Clavijo’s second movie is the 2013 film, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
Starring Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty, this was also one of the first films that Stiller wrote and directed.
For Clavijo, “It’s just a great movie about doing things that you don’t want to do and putting yourself out there and exploring the unknown and going on an adventure when you aren’t that type of person,” he explained, finding himself relating to Ben Stiller’s introverted, shy character.
The film follows the adventures of a timid LIFE magazine photo manager (Ben Stiller) who finds himself living his life through daydreams as he embarks on a real-life adventure when a negative goes missing.
Clavijo had to include his love for music in his film decisions, saying, “I’m a big sucker for soundtracks in film. The main song in that film is “Space Oddity” by David Bowie. It’s just a great use of that song, it plays out so perfectly,” deeming the film one of his comfort movies.
Slightly bending the rules for his third choice, Clavijo initially selected the entire The Dark Knight trilogy, but he eventually narrowed it down to just the 2008 film, The Dark Knight.
“I’ve always been into superheroes, and that’s the ideal superhero movie, right? Because it’s not just for kids. It’s got bigger themes attached to it for adults,” said Clavijo, noting this as one of his yearly rewatches.
Leaving no doubt for his love of this film, Clavijo continues, “The Dark Knight is like the epitome because you’ve got Heath Ledger in there. Heath Ledger is so good. He plays the perfect villain. He’s pitting people against each other. He’s not just going around killing people. He’s letting them kill each other,” praising Ledger’s legendary performance as the Joker.
Clavijo even praises the film’s controversially extended run-time of 152 minutes, saying, “That movie is so long and I love that it’s so long. Just when you think it’s over, when it’s like halfway through and they lock up Joker, it’s like nope, you still got the other half of the movie.”
The Dark Knight follows Batman (Christian Bale) as he continues his war on crime in Gotham City. Unfortunately, Batman, alongside Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), find themselves unprepared for the reign of terror caused by the criminal known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as the Joker (Heath Ledger.)
Before choosing his fourth film, Clavijo mentioned the 2014 film, Chef, starring John Favreau.
“That’s a great comfort film. He opens a food truck, gets closer to his son. It’s super good,” Clavijo said, giving a quick nod to the film.
Finally giving his last film, Clavijo chose the 1993 classic, The Sandlot.
“I watched that movie a lot growing up as a kid. As a kid who played baseball, I enjoyed it,” said Clavijo, noting that while he wasn’t in the neighborhood playing with his friends and instead played in a league, he still found this film relatable to his experience with baseball as a child.
Labeling the film as a great coming of age film, Clavijo opened up about what saddened him in the film.
“At the end, during the part where they go, ‘Here’s what happened to so and so…Yeah, we didn’t talk much after that summer, but I think about them from time to time.’ It’s so realistic and I think about those situations a lot in my life too,” said Clavijo, going on to say how human that makes the film feel to him.
Never failing to bring music into the conversation, Clavijo brought up the music of the film, “Again, it has a great soundtrack. Booker T. and the M.G. ‘s Green Onions, The Drifters, The Champs, it’s so good.”
According to Clavijo, The Sandlot withstands the test of time and it’s a good watch.
The Sandlot follows a summer of friendship and adventure, where one boy joins a group of nine others to become a baseball team and the group’s leader becomes a legend by confronting the terrifying mystery beyond the right field wall.
To keep up with what Jacob is watching, follow him on his Letterboxd account: @j_clavijo
For more of what I’m watching and past Letterboxd picks, follow my Letterboxd account: @elliegsim
