"I’ll start with Midnight Run. Just one of the finest Goddamn movies I’ve ever seen. Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro. If there’s a better buddy comedy, show it to me, and I’ll shake your hand. It’s so funny. It’s also where I learned what chorizo is. Being from Illinois, not a lot of truck stops serve chorizo and eggs. It was part of my “goin’ out west” legend, like, “One day, I will go to California, and on the way there, I will experience chorizo and eggs.”"

"Frank Zappa's glorious Straight label gave us Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper, the GTO's and this absurdly eclectic 1969 album by sardonic folk-blues-comedy-rock-cabaret belter Judy Henske and hubby Jerry Yester of the New Christy Minstrels and the Modern Folk Quartet. No two tracks sound like the same band (or even singer), thanks to Henske's radical versatility and Yester playing ten different instruments; but unlike the Turtles' equally perversely wide-ranging The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands, no track sounds much like anyone else either. "

"There’s no film like it. It’s a mixed-media film that blends animation with real time, and absurd comedy with deeply real horror. It’s just super fun and almost like Dada. It just makes you laugh when you’re probably not supposed to and makes you scream when you’re probably supposed to be laughing. I love things that are both terrifying and humorous, and that film is just a ride unlike any other. It’s so vivid and well designed and visionary. It’s a perfect midnight movie—not unlike Assassination Nation."

"At a film festival conference a few decades past, I was asked by a solemn journalist which French director has had the most influence on me. I expressed undying appreciation of Truffaut, Godard, Renoir, but stated that the most accurate answer was that Jacques Tati left an indelible mark when I saw this film as a boy. The French hated that answer—Tati was out of favor at the time. Funny how that works. This film remains one of the most hilarious, affectionate, politely barbed creations. For me it’s a cinematic standard for human comedy."

"I am a huge Lili Taylor fan. I once weaseled my way onto a movie set just so I could be in one scene with her. She was the reason I initially wanted to see this movie. I have always really loved films that ride the line between comedy and drama (and I really wish there was a better word for them than “dramedy”), and Altman is the king of this hybrid genre. This was also the start of my very deep love and appreciation for Julianne Moore."

"I like The King of Comedy by Scorsese. I like that one. It makes me laugh a lot. I think it’s very funny. I mean, I like the combination, the trio of Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard; that’s just one of my favorite trios in a movie. The three of them had a pretty amazing chemistry, I thought. I’ve heard that Scorsese was reluctant to make it, that it was on the shelf for a while; I guess that makes me appreciate it even more."