Rapper El-P was the co-founder and artistic director of indie hip-hop label Definitive Jux (home to Aesop Rock, Cage, Rob Sonic, and others) until he stepped down in early 2010 to focus on being an artist full-time. (The label also curated the Definitive Swim compilation.) Though El's between projects, he spent the summer warring with Justin Bieber over Twitter before finally remixing one of his songs. We phoned El up, and he explained to us his obsession with heist movies and why Kathleen Turner rubs him the wrong way.

Last watched: V: The Final Battle

It was a huge television event in the '80s. They remade it for some crappy TV version of it as a new V, but the original V is just epic. F***ing [Robert Englund], the guy who plays Freddy Kruger is in it as a good guy. It's the cheesiest, most epic [s***]. There's three giant miniseries, and it takes hours and hours to watch but it's good. It's good. And you watch it and you're like, "Oh, this is where David Icke got his reptilian thing."

No. 1: Blood Simple [Rated R]

I've actually never seen Blood Simple, which I guess is the Coen Bros.' first flick? I'm a huge Coen Bros. fan, but I've never seen this, which is weird because Frances McDormand, she's the star in this and she's hot. Just strange to think.

She's so plain in Fargo, but then again everyone else is as well.

Yeah, I guess that's sorta the point. But she's definitely got something in this, I just didn't realize she was in it. She's has this long-standing connection with them. So that's interesting.

No. 2: Where The Buffalo Roam

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The Bill Murray movie from 1980. It's not really a spoof, it's supposed to be a biography. It's somewhat of a comedy, to a degree, but in the same way that Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas was a comedy. No, it's pretty much a biography in terms of [Hunter S. Thompson's] political and journalistic career, and his attorney, Lazlo, who is played by Peter Boyle. It's kinda good. It's good, not great. But it was sort of like Bill Murray's more-serious roles.

Well, you mentioned with V, how you can tell it sort of sowed the seeds for stuff later on in people's careers. That's pretty much all Bill Murray ever does now, more-serious or dramatic stuff.

Yeah, I love Bill Murray but Bill Murray's definitely settling into that nouveau acting style where you just sorta look depressed for the entire movie.

“Bill Murray's definitely settling into that nouveau acting style where you just sorta look depressed for the entire movie. ”

Yeah, like in Broken Flowers?

Yeah! Though I really enjoyed Lost In Translation, and I guess it's because I've been to Japan several times and I get the references that they're making. By the time I saw it, I had already been there like five or six times. I definitely found it amusing, personally.

No. 38: Louis C.K.: Chewed Up

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It's good! It's OK. I like Louis C.K. I never thought his stand-up was as incredible as everyone else thought, but I like his new show Louie is brilliant. It gets f***ed-up, it get's dark. He's kind of using that loose structure [of doing stand-up in the show] as an excuse to do some really dark s***. The stand-up is cool, you know? I definitely think Louis C.K. is a bit of a genius, but I'm not as obsessed with him as a lot of people seem to be.

No. 60: Criminal [Rated R]

[Laughs.] I saw a little bit of it on TV a while ago, and I kinda just wanted to watch the rest of it.

John C. Reilly. Sick flick. Underrated. People forget that John C. Reilly's a really good dramatic actor. I mean, he's great with Will Ferrell in anything, but, yeah. I'm a big fan of heist movies and con movies, anything of that nature. He's just a complete f***ing bastard, criminal con man. Just the most unlikable motherf***er on the planet. And you just follow him around and he's working his hustles and s***, he's just a c*********. I like films like that. I'm a fan of movies that don't make you try to like the main character. It's good, I dig that. I don't think that art is supposed to be about convincing someone that you're great, or the idea that the focus of the story has to be on someone who's relatable.

“I'm a fan of movies that don't make you try to like the main character. ”

What I can't stand are movies like Ocean's Eleven. I cannot do them. Just dudes walking around being glib and winking at each other? That's just kinda f***ing boring to me. I don't give a s***. I don't. I don't want them to win. I don't care. Maybe it's this great throwback to the good old days when Frank Sinatra and his buddies would make s****y movies, but I can't. F*** those movies. They always just seem like an excuse for good-looking people to get together in a room and just be cool. These are worse people to watch than George Clooney. You know, I like George Clooney. But those movies I literally feel like I could walk out of the room, make a sandwich, come back, and not miss anything. In every scene.

“I literally feel like I could walk out of the room, make a sandwich, come back, and not miss anything.”

No. 65: Peggy Sue Got Married

Jim Carrey's in it. Young Jim Carrey. This is before Kathleen Turner turned into whatever she is now. [Laughs.] Does she have some sort of gigantism, or what happened to her? I feel like she was really hot for the '80s, and then the '90s hit and she's just kinda scary-looking. She's sort of a lurching-looking woman now. But yeah, that's a good flick. Interesting take on the time traveling, minus the whole Back To The Future angle: back in high school with the mind of an adult.

No. 72: Ichi The Killer

I don't know why I watched that film. It's just one of those films that I think everyone in a fit of Japanophile twisted fad s*** decided was a good film. But that film is really hard for me to watch. I watched it years ago and I watched it again and I was wondering why I watched it years ago.

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