"Broadcast News is next on the list. I’m a big Holly Hunter fan. I just think it’s a great movie; it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s interesting. It’s got that archetype of the ambitious news woman, you know? I like that she’s behind the scenes. It’s a character that I’ve never played in a movie. I think that I’m always waiting for that role; they all seem to go to Rachel McAdams. [laughs] You know, that inquisitive journalist who’s behind the scenes and is super feisty. We’ve done a couple episodes of Community where I got to sort of channel that energy. But it’s definitely a role I’ve always had my eye on, and Holly Hunter is such a singular actress in her style, and her voice is unique, and she’s such a petite woman; I think she carries her strength in an interesting way. She just emanates strength and confidence. She also has amazing crying scenes. It’s a great showcase of her acting."

"This is the story of Lillian Leyb, a Russian immigrant making her way in a new land, traveling through America in the mid-1920s. Her daughter was taken away from her during a pogrom in Russia, and she feels this unbelievable mother’s pull to search for her child that keeps her going—literally—through woods and snow and over mountains. From minute one, you root for Lillian’s success because she’s this plucky heroine. I felt as if I were on the journey with her, so there were a couple of moments when I would just want to throw the book across the room and yell, ‘Amy Bloom, if you make Lillian suffer anymore, I am going to kill you!’ This is a sweeping story of someone new to America who runs into the best and worst of people. The kindness—and the harshness—Lillian finds along the way represents, I think, the real experience of our country."

"I guess the next one, chronologically, would be Raiders of the Lost Ark, even though it’s hard to choose just one Spielberg film. First of all it’s George Lucas and Spielberg, which is kind of like Jesus and Moses collaborating on a movie [laughing]. But it was just, you know, it was so different, it just came out of nowhere. I mean Harrison Ford who had been Han Solo and all of a sudden he’s late ’30s and battling Nazis. It was just such a ride and it still holds up. Just movie magic, know what I mean? I saw it a couple years ago. We were doing a sound mix at Skywalker Sound, it was right before the new one came out, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and they showed a pristine 35mm print of it. It just brought back all those great memories and, again, no CG, you know. Just really good filmmaking."

"I’m an absolute lover of The Wizard of Oz. I adore that film from start to finish. It never gets old. I think it has a beautiful, tender tone of both real drama and huge comedy, and I adore it. I don’t remember the first time [I saw it]; it’s part of my brain. I mean, I saw that film along with The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins. I still watch it every couple of years, and it brings me great joy every single time. I love Bert Lahr [as the Cowardly Lion], and his performance really gets me where I live. When they go to meet the Wizard and he’s doing his big speech and he says, “I just want you guys to do one thing….” – I’m butchering this! – and he goes, “Talk me out of it,” because he didn’t want to go in… I adore that moment in the film, as well as countless others."

"Not lovely at all is the music of the Edwardses, who are always at least slightly off. Cynics say the pair are really actual jazz superstars Jo Stafford and Paul Weston, but I choose to believe there is really a woman who was born to sing 'You're Blasé; as if she were hanging upside down and swinging back and forth like a drunken pendulum, and a man who plays the piano as though he were also juggling. Hailing from Trenton, NJ, the couple tripped onto the world stage in 1957 – twelve years before the Shaggs – and off again in 1982 after five albums and five singles, some of which are pretty hard to find, so the two volumes of Greatest Hits are a good start. (Misleadingly, the Complete Original Albums compilation contains only the first two albums.) Now that I have publicly come out as a fan, I guess I have to buy all the albums. Excuse me for a moment. Okay, I'm back. "

"I'd loved the previous albums but then Attack & Release came out and they'd worked with Danger Mouse, who is one of my favourite producers and was doing great stuff around then with Gorillaz and Martina Topley-Bird, and he'd done The Grey Album thing too, and I think Gnarls Barkley came just after this. Quite an unusual choice of producer for them, because they'd been doing quite hard stuff before that. Not rock rock, but y'know. It was just an amazing blend. Danger Mouse has got a real swing to the stuff he does, and he'd put a surrounding swing to it, combining two quite raw musicians - and an amazing vocalist - and it's just this incredible album. I've seen them a couple of times - and I think I built my expectation of them up too much - I mean, they were amazing, but I think I was expecting it to be the pinnacle of all gigs."