When Carrie-Anne Moss asked her Matrix co-star Keanu Reeves for some suggested movies to watch with her teenage children, she may have been expecting an off-hand reply with a couple of recent films mentioned. But, like with everything he does, Reeves put his whole back into it and diligently wrote out a list of eighteen favourite films.
Moss says; “when I asked him for those movies, it seems like a little thing, but he’s so busy, he’s exhausted, and took the time to write this very, very thoughtful list.”
Esquire have now shared Keanu’s updated list of classics, with a couple of cheeky recent films starring a certain Mr Reeves chucked in for good measure.
The oldest film on the list is Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, from 1954. Reeves also selected two Stanley Kubrick films – Doctor Strangelove (1964) and A Clockwork Orange (1971).
The 70s was a popular decade for Reeves, with him also selecting two Gene Wilder comedy classics from 1974 – Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. He also chose Rollerball (1975), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and the Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) from that decade.
Moving onto the 1980s, Reeves chose The Road Warrior: Mad Max 2 (1981), Sam Raimi‘s cult horror classic The Evil Dead (1981), Amadeus (1984) and the Coen Brothers’ comedy Raising Arizona (1987), starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter.
Moving onto the 1990s, Reeves chose two films from French director Luc Besson – La Femme Nikita (1990) and Leon: The Professional (1994). He also chose another Coen Brothers’ comedy – The Big Lebowski (1998), starring Jeff Bridges.
Perhaps the most obscure film on the list is British comedy Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), a spin-off from Hamlet, starring Tim Roth and Gary Oldman. It’s written and directed by Tom Stoppard and is a great addition to Keanu’s list.
Finally, Reeves sneakily added two films which he has small supporting roles in – Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon and Ana Lily Amirpour’s The Bad Batch – both from 2016.
If you enjoyed Keanu Reeves’ list, you might be interested in our guides to the best 80s movies and the best 90s movies.