Jonah Hill’s 21 favourite movies of all time
In This Is The End, Jonah Hill tells Emma Watson that he is ‘America’s sweetheart’. While this comment is clearly meant to be tongue in cheek and serves to illuminate the arrogance of Hill’s fictional portrayal of himself, it could also be somewhat stretched into the truth.
The reality is, that Hill’s rise to prominence in Hollywood for both his mid-2000s roles in the coming-of-age comedies such as Superbad and his critically acclaimed ‘serious’ roles in Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street have made him one of the most beloved actors in the business.
In a recent interview with GQ, Hill revealed some of the films that have had a deep impact on his personal and professional lives. Hill’s list is largely comprised of films from the 1970s and 1990s. It reveals to us that he is something of a cinephile, making his way through the classics of the decade before he was born while also giving us a clue to his inspirations for his coming-of-age comedy-drama Mid90s.
One particular 1970s film that Hill loves is Hal Ashby’s Shampoo, a comedy in which Warren Beatty stars as a playboy who works at a hair salon but ends up becoming something of a womaniser during his time at work. Hill admits that he doesn’t “know how it [would] fly now.
He added on the nature of 1970s comedies, “In the ’70s, comedies were not genre-fied in the same way. There were these great films that looked beautiful, made by great directors, where your A-level great filmmakers that made crazy dramas made ‘comedies’ and they had great actors in them and were shot by the great DPs.”
Meanwhile, Hill admitted the influence that Lynne Ramsay’s 1999 film Ratcatcher had on Mid90s. He said, “It fits in that genre of, like, This is England and Andrea Arnold films—just a great coming of age movie that’s really intense but beautiful and human. If you want something rich, artistic, deep, fucked up.”
Other 1990s flicks that hold a special place in Hill’s heart include Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage, Allison Anders’ Mi Vida Loca and the Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society, which Hill believes is something of a gangster film on the same level as GoodFellas. Hill grew up watching these 90s films as a teenager growing up in Los Angeles, so it’s unsurprising to find his list laden with movies that came out when he himself was coming of age.
Hill’s most considerable praise, though, came for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, a 2012 psychological drama that examined the mental consequences of World War II on a Navy veteran who meets the charismatic leader of a religious cult.
Of The Master, Hill said, “I think this is becoming my favourite film of all time. It’s up there with Goodfellas and Casino, and it might’ve shifted to number one of all time. You have to put Paul Thomas Anderson at the top of the list of best filmmakers. He’s gonna go down, like, Kubrick-level. His movies don’t shake the world like they should. The Master is just pretty much a perfect film. Its photography, its acting, the performances, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Below, we have compiled the complete list of Jonah Hill’s favourite movies of all time.
Jonah Hill’s 21 favourite movies of all time:
- Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975)
- Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979)
- CB4 (Tamra Davis, 1993)
- Fear of a Black Hat (Rusty Cundieff, 1993)
- Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971)
- The Birdcage (Mike Nichols, 1996)
- Network (Paddy Chayefsky, 1976)
- Mi Vida Loca (Allison Anders, 1993)
- Tommy Boy Peter Segal, 1995)
- Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
- Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
- Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)
- Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
- Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay, 1999)
- Popstar: Never Stop Singing (Akiva Schaffer, 2016)
- Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
- The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
- Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974)
- 24 Hour Party People (Michael Winterbottom, 2022)
- Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989)
- Menace II Society (Hughes Brothers, 1993)
