As if we needed another reason to love her, Ayo Edebiri is a self-confessed movie buff. She is active on Letterboxd, where she amusingly remarks in her review of Empire Strikes Back, “This movie is fantastic, but Yoda’s appearance really stunned me. I apologize if it offends anyone, but I had only seen Yoda as a baby, and Yoda as an adult is hot.” She recently gave in to her inner movie buff and raided the Criterion Collection closet.
Edebiri mentioned that she was impressed by chic and sultry heist movies like Thief and Charade while she was exploring. Along with Juzo Itami, whom she refers to as “the G.O.A.T.,” and his spouse Nobuko Miyamoto, she also commended their work. She also talked about the surrealist vision of African Americans in To Sleep with Anger.
Her passion is so contagious! A YouTube user commented, “With her prepared list on her phone and the Radiohead t-shirt, this feels like the closest we’ve come to having one of us in the Criterion closet.”
Edebiri was exceptionally prepared, which is what made this specific visit to the Criterion closet so memorable. She completed her assigned reading, praising her choices in detail, which in turn piques viewers’ interest. Criterion’s goal with these closet videos is precisely to capture this level of meticulous passion. It’s unfortunate that she wasn’t able to bring home additional movies because it would have been interesting to hear her opinions on even more of them.