"It’s hard to believe a movie like this was once considered not only culturally impactful but mainstream. If The Last Picture Show could even get made today, I’m sure it would make a hundred dollars at art houses in New York and Los Angeles before going to Netflix in a month. I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma, not far from the setting of The Last Picture Show. Though I lived there in the seventies and early eighties and not the early fifties . . . though my town was in color and not black-and-white . . . Bogdanovich and Larry McMurtry evoke the way life felt for me. I knew some Sam the Lions, was closely related to some of them. As the movie suggests, they are now extinct. Every element of this film succeeds, and yet it is bigger than the sum of its parts. A profound film about the vanishing of character in America."

"I saw it at BAM in Brooklyn when they were doing a Schlöndorff retrospective, and I didn’t previously know much of his work but then got super obsessed with him. What’s cool about him is that his films are all totally different. The Tin Drum is a crazy epic story told through the perspective of this young boy, and the voice-over is incredible and takes you through his experience. A lot of people think the voice-over in We the Animals is a reference to Malick, but we’re actually referencing The Tin Drum. What I love about this movie and Ratcatcher is that they show an understanding of childhood sexuality, which you only really see in European films. The other thing that’s really important about The Tin Drum is the color palette. It has this incredibly vibrant, almost Technicolor palette. I showed the film to my DP and everybody that we worked with."

"The opening 18 minutes of that thing, I mean, when the door dropped on the Higgins craft and it all of a sudden was World War Two in color, seeing blood, seeing guys walking around looking for their arm that had been blown off. Weird poignant scenes where the medic was like stopping the bleeding and the bullet would just go right through the guy’s head. Also the story was strong too; there’s a bunch of guys named Ryan spread out all over the place and they think they’re finding him, and his guys kind of going, “Why are we killing ourselves trying to save one guy, and we’ve lost two or three of our own?” That thing that would never go on today. And all the stops along the way, there’s no way an hour into that movie I went, “Nah, I don’t care if they find him or not, I’m moving on.”"

"My fourth favorite movie — I think every top five list has to have an Audrey Hepburn movie in it. Probably the greatest face of the 20th century, if not Sophia Loren and perhaps Monroe. Maybe Ingrid Bergman. But certainly she changed everything for the waif look, and the modern woman, and the non-buxom bosomy girl; and also always played smart. But this movie — I know I sound like a chorus boy here but, Funny Face is just… the choreography, the split-screen work, Kay Thompson, my God. Just try to stare at Audrey Hepburn dancing in her wedding attire and stepping onto a raft into an idyllic French stream with swans floating around. And perfect choreography and synchronization with the camera. And the swooping crane shots and the music. It’s just a wonderful, wonderful film. And smart and funny — and beatniks in Paris, and fashion, and color, and, yeah, I just really love the film. Ahead of it’s time."

"In general, I’m not a big fan of French New Wave films, and Touki bouki is clearly inspired by their characteristic fragmented, slow-moving, alienating quality. But the world of Touki bouki is so beautiful and engrossing that it sucks you right in. When the cows come toward the camera in the opening shot, you know immediately that these cows have been color-coordinated to within an inch of their lives. I love this kind of super-deliberate film where each frame could stand on its own. Even the piles of garbage are perfectly composed. Mambéty’s visual sense of humor is terrific: the man trying to break up a fight between two women only to get beaten up himself, the taxi driver running away in his yellow socks, Mory in the paddleboat with the lecherous Charlie. The main characters, Mory and Anta, never ask for our sympathy, because they are too cool for us."

"As a band I love their vibe, the way they look and interact – all with their own little character going on. But I’m obsessed with [lead singer] Brittany Howard. There’s something about Brittany that puts fire in my soul. She reminds me of Etta James, Ann Peebles – she’s so fucking full of soul, overflowing, dripping, that I almost can’t handle it. On their most recent album [Sound & Color], there’s a song called Don’t Wanna Fight. Brittany comes in with a scream: “YOOOOOOOOOOOW!” I’d love to experiment more with my own voice like that. She’s exceptional, she blows my mind. I almost want to start playing the electric guitar, just to be more like her. Back in 2013, she was in the next-door dressing room at the Grammys. We were both getting ready – I think I was putting on my Spanx – and we met. It turned out she’d brought her grandmother to the Grammys. My love went even deeper for her at that point."