Watching through chronologically as you are will give Asteroid City the strongest punch. It’s one of my favs of his (and one of his funniest), but it’s so deeply in conversation with the rest of his body of work that it would be a lot harder to get on its wavelength without at least a few of them under your belt.
I’m glad you found it as illuminating and enjoyable as I did! =)
I really enjoyed the interview he gave on The Big Picture about a month ago: https://youtu.be/Nh9H3EXM3jA?t=6641
(also available in their podcast feed if you prefer audio-only)
I can’t speak to why the Irish instead of some other group. But generally, they’re an example of a historically subjugated people who experienced hardship and discrimination when arriving in the US, but were eventually (more or less) accepted and brought into the fold as “white”. Meanwhile, black people, on whose backs the US was literally built, many of whose lineage in the US stretches back hundreds of years further than many white people, still face some of the worst treatment and outcomes of any minority group in the US.
So my read is that while they had a common plight, the relative leg up the Irish had would render attempts to form community between the two groups fraught. And Remmick is clearly trying to exploit that common cause for his own purposes, and isn’t too concerned with actual liberation, as demonstrated by his first recruits being Klan members.
The Hustler is an excellent Paul Newman film about billiards.
Blow-Up is a bizarre anxiety drenched film about a photographer who may have captured evidence of a crime in the background of a photo.
Grand Prix is a neat film about formula 1 racing, with some of the best action photography ever.
If queer film is your jam, the work of Kenneth Anger is always worth checking out, Scorpio Rising being my favorite of those I’ve seen
If you like sci-fi and experimental shorts, Chris Marker’s La Jetee is pretty cool, and is what 12 Monkeys was based on.
As for super ambitious metanarrative experiments, Symbiopsychotaciplasm: Take One is incredible.