RaMell Ross Needed to Take His Jacket Off While Tackling the Criterion Closet

Ross' selections include "The Tin Drum," "Stalker," "Cameraperson," "Jubal," and more.

“It’s also getting hot in here, so I think I’ll get more serious and roll my sleeves up by taking the jacket off.”

When it comes to the Criterion Closet, “Nickel Boys” writer/director RaMell Ross didn’t come to mess around. Trying to emulate the feeling of what it was like when he first discovered cinema in the library of the Rhode Island School of Design where he earned his MFA degree, Ross let his focus turn towards the many shelves of titles for him to choose from. After grabbing Volker Schlöndorff’s 1979 adaptation of “The Tin Drum,” Ross was drawn to the work of Wong Kar-Wai, as both an admirer and a student interested in learning more.

“I know his work, but I haven’t digested it,” said Ross. “I think people should digest work, not encounter it. You need to bring it in. You need to eat it.”

Ross next payed homage to the French director Chris Marker and his work in “Sans Soleil” and “La Jetée.” Reciting a line from the latter, he said, “‘Nothing tells memory from ordinary moments. Only afterwards do they claim remembrance on account of their scars.’ Which was really great for Nickel Boys.”

Discussing his Golden Globe-nominated film in a recent interview with IndieWire, Ross explained how the visual language of “Nickel Boys” was informed by Elwood and Turner’s individual outlooks on the world.

“Elwood looks through the world optimistically. That’s a very specific way of looking at people in the eye in certain ways, and looking at their body and things moving,” said Ross. “And then, of course, Turner looks at the world quite differently, more cynically, more strategically. You can execute that visually. I’ve looked at the world in both of those ways, and I know the way that I looked, and gave it to them.”

Back in the Criterion Closet, after shouting out Kirsten Johnson’s documentary “Cameraperson” and Charles Burnett’s “To Sleep With Anger,” Ross praised the “Qatsi” documentary and the work of experimental documentarian Godfrey Reggio.

“He’s vital for understanding the world, I believe, the visual world,” Ross said.

Watch Ross’ full Criterion Closet video below.