Mahershala Ali’s four favourite movies: “That’s my jam”
When he first appeared as a chef in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, few could have predicted that Mahershala Ali would go on to become one of the most celebrated actors of the 21st century.
The first Black actor to win two acting Oscars in the same category, Ali captivated audiences with his performances in Moonlight, Green Book, and many other wonderful and deeply heartening projects. There’s something about the gravitas and nuances he brings to a character that makes it impossible to look away. He is truly a master of his craft.
Choosing a favourite Ali film is no easy task. There are the two aforementioned Oscar winners, as well as the two animated Spider-Verse films, to which he lends his voice. Hidden Figures is a decent shout, or how about the two Hunger Games movies he was in? Marvel’s Blade might have been a contender, had that entire thing not fallen apart.
Luckily, we don’t have to answer that question, but the man sure does. While promoting Leave the World Behind, an apocalyptic horror in which he stars alongside Julia Roberts, the acclaimed performer was given the usual ‘Four Favourites’ treatment by those fine folk over at Letterboxd. As is always the case with these interviews, he shuddered at the thought, quietly exclaiming ‘Oh God’ when the dreaded question was posed.
First up, he went for the legendary silent movie, Nanook of the North. “[It’s] one of my favourite films,” he said. “First documentary I really liked. That’s my jam, I love that movie”.
Widely regarded as the inaugural documentary film, the story follows Inuit man Nanook and his family as they live their lives in the Ungava Peninsula of Quebec, Canada. Combining elements of real-life and fiction, Robert J Flaherty’s work was unlike anything audiences had seen up to that point and remains a truly unique piece of filmmaking. When the US Library of Congress picked the first 25 movies to be preserved in their National Film Registry, the docufilm picked up the prestigious honour.
After dropping this bombshell, Ali continued with something a bit more mainstream. “I’m a big Robert De Niro fan,” he said, “so, umm, Raging Bull. He just excites me… so there you go”. He made his third choice with Do the Right Thing, the iconic Brooklyn-based tale of racial tensions that first made people sit up and take notice of a fella called Spike Lee.
As he tried to come up with his fourth answer, co-star Roberts attempted to influence Ali’s decision-making by whispering “The Pelican Brief” in his ear. While he did say he loved that movie (in which Roberts starred, in case you didn’t know), he eventually settled on Jacques Audiard’s 2009 prison drama A Prophet. The film follows a small-time crook played by Tahar Rahim as he works his way up the criminal ladder still in jail, eventually becoming a high-ranking member of the Corsican mafia. It showed that Audiard really knew how to make a movie…until he flushed all his goodwill down the toilet with Emilia Pérez.
Ali went in all sorts of different directions with these names, proving that he really does know his stuff when it comes to movies. Still not over that Nanook of the North pick though, what a baller move!
Mahershala Ali’s all-time favourite movies:
- Nanook of the North (Robert J Flaherty, 1922)
- Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
- Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
- A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009)
