"Now for a more contemporary movie. What a phenomenal third act. What a triumphant moment at the end. There’s so much build up — some movies just don’t pay off the way they should. The performances were beyond incredible, but to have that triumphant moment be as strong as it really was, you just don’t find it. And so simple too. The story didn’t have to be about explosions and car crashes to really hit as hard as it did. It didn’t need the Hollywood spin on it — not that that story could have ever been told with a Hollywood spin on it — but that this simple story about this relationship could have as big an impact as anything I’ve seen is incredible. JK Simmons is so good; he doesn’t have any tells, so you only get clues to where it’s going. But he’s so good at playing that asshole."

"A perfect movie. Too perfect for me the first time I saw it at the Museum of Modern Art in 1971. It went right by me. The same thing happened the first time I had dinner at Chez Panisse. Sometimes an aesthetic experience is so sure-handed and flawless it’s beyond your ability to absorb it. I returned to Rules of the Game after seeing Grand Illusion and my favorite Renoir, The Crime of M. Lange. In fact, I saw a whole retrospective of his work before I realized what I had missed the first time I saw Rules of the Game. “Everyone has his reasons” is more than a line of dialogue; it is a comment on the true nature of what makes us so painfully human. Twenty-five years of meals and a day in the kitchen of Chez Panisse has taught me how they make a masterpiece right."

"The New York Times asked me to review Keith Richards’ rock and roll memoir, Life. Due to a printing delay, I was reading and writing my impression of his chronicle while I was out on tour myself. It was a delight to immerse myself in such a jaw-dropping account of the peripatetic lifestyle I was experiencing, albeit at a much shallower altitude. The Rolling Stones are iconic by any measure. Getting an all access pass backstage through Richards’s eyes to the world beyond the bright lights and throbbing amplifiers is as thrilling as you might imagine. You will laugh out in parts, nod in recognition at the famous cultural touch-points and feel proud to be a music fan. Rock and roll has a very specific ethos, and Life hits upon all of the sacred precepts. Plug it in and turn it up to 11."