Julia Garner will no doubt garner applause for her masterful Criterion Closet picks, ranging from auteurs Spike Lee to Bong Joon Ho. Yet it was two distinct features that propelled the “Ozark” star to personally pursue acting: “All About Eve” and John Cassavetes‘ “A Woman Under the Influence.”
And if those seem like odd pairings, let Garner herself explain.
“The first film that I’m going to pick is my favorite film, ‘All About Eve.’ Bette Davis is incredible. Anne Baxter, who plays Eve Harrington, is incredible,” Garner said during a visit to the Criterion Closet. “I watch this movie at least once a year, sometimes multiple times a year. I just think this is a perfect film, and I think everybody should watch this.”
“All About Eve” stars Davis as an aging famed stage actress, who becomes the object of obsession by her titular fan-turned-protege assistant (Baxter). Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed the iconic 1950 Oscar winner.
“‘All About Eve’ and [John] Cassavetes films were the main reason why I wanted to become an actor in the first place,” Garner said, before adding that Cassavetes’ 1974 feature “A Woman Under the Influence” is another one of her favorite films.
“He was a pioneer of American independent cinema,” the “Wolf Man” and “Fantastic Four” actress said of late director Cassavetes.
According to Garner, not much has changed in Hollywood and the industry of acting since “All About Eve” or another film she name dropped, Hal Ashby’s “Shampoo” (1975). Despite being released exactly 25 years apart, both features timelessly show the competition that is rife between actors.
“I love this movie,” Garner said while holding “Shampoo” in the Closet. “Again, it has to do with the business. But L.A. hasn’t really changed, like, at all. Los Angeles has not changed. Hollywood has not changed. I mean, you have this and this [‘All About Eve’], and you see how times change, but people don’t change. I feel like this movie really represents that.”
Fellow recent Criterion Closet visitor Carol Kane similarly drew a comparison between “All About Eve” and Cassavetes, like Garner. Kane, however, was a staple Cassavetes collaborator on the stage.
“Since I was a little girl and I had insomnia, I used to watch ‘Million Dollar Movie’ all night long in New York City,” Kane said in August 2024. “And I fell in love with Bette Davis, the first real character actor/actress/star. She didn’t care what she looked like, if somebody had to look beat-up, she really wanted to look beat-up. In those days, that didn’t happen. If you were a star and had to look beat-up, you had a little bit of dirt there, but not Miss Davis.”
Kane then grabbed a five-film set of Cassavetes films, saying, “I had the great privilege to work with John and Gena [Rowlands] in the theater and he made everybody that worked with him much better than we were because he believed in people so much.”
