(Credits: Far Out / Raph Pour-Hashemi)
As the lead singer of The Strokes, one of the biggest indie bands of the 21st century, Julian Casablancas has found his fair share of success. The five-piece emerged in the early 2000s with Is This It, an album that would greatly impact popular music. Containing hits like ‘Someday’ and ‘Last Nite’, the record acts as a sonic time capsule of nostalgia for so many indie lovers who grew up with the record soundtracking their formative years.
Following Is This It, the band released more records like Room on Fire and The New Abnormal, while Casablancas also formed his own solo career, collaborated with everyone from Daft Punk to the Lonely Island, and created the band The Voidz. Casablancas has been a busy man over the past few decades, balancing various album releases and tours while also managing Cult Records, a label he founded back in 2009.
Yet, when Casablancas has some spare time, he likes nothing more than watching movies, and during an interview with Scott Lipps for Spin’s LippService podcast, he shared some of his favourites. It seems like the musician has a rather eclectic taste, citing a range of genres, like anime and horror.
He began by selecting Ninja Scroll, an anime directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, which was released in 1993 when Casablancas was a teenager. The project helped to popularise anime as a genre that could attract adult viewers and be taken more seriously, and its success even spawned a television series spin-off. “It’s really the only anime movie that I love love love,” he admitted. The movie has had a lasting impact on cinema, even inspiring The Matrix.
“Gotta throw Malcolm X in there,” Casablancas then said, calling it a “great film”. Spike Lee’s interpretation of the political activist’s story, starring Denzel Washington in the leading role, was released in 1992. Coming in at almost three and a half hours, it’s a long and impressive epic that covers everything from his pilgrimage to Mecca to his tragic death. Upon its release, the movie was widely acclaimed, with Washington even earning an Academy Award nomination.
Now a “cheesy” pick, according to Casablancas, which he finds himself coming back to regularly – The Last of the Mochicans by Michael Mann and featuring Daniel Day-Lewis. “It’s just so well done and the music is so cool,” he explained, even if it has a bit of a “white saviour or whatever” narrative, the singer added. “I think it’s just the music”. Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman were in charge of the soundtrack, while the Irish band Clannad contributed the song ‘I Will Find You’.
A more recent choice comes in the form of the 2024 horror movie Longlegs, directed by Osgood Perkins and starring Nicolas Cage as the terrifying antagonist. He called it “really fun,” urging the interviewer to see it, clearly loving the new release enough to already put it in his top five list. Everyone has been raving about the film this year, and it seems as though Casablancas is among those who thoroughly enjoyed it.
Finally, a tender selection in the form of My Own Private Idaho by Gus Van Sant. The movie follows River Phoenix’s Mike and Keanu Reeves’ Scott, two street hustlers who travel together in search of Mike’s mother. It’s a movie full of longing and the quest for belonging, and Casablancas thinks it’s beautiful.
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