"That’s my plane movie. Like, I’ve got it stored on my phone, and if I absolutely just need to just be on a plane, I’ll just put on Apocalypse Now. The mania and craziness that Colonel Kurtz is supposed to represent, and what the jungle in Cambodia is supposed to represent — knowing, by watching documentaries and reading about it, that that mania was not only present, it was prominent on set as they filmed this. Just all of that together. The movie itself is incredible, but the knowing of the making of the film, and what happened when they were making that film, knowing all of that just makes it a much more comprehensive experience. When Colonel Kurtz talks about the horror, and you know what horror he’s talking about, you just feel like you are let in. You’re gifted an audience into true craziness. Every single character in that movie is bats–t insane, and it’s just a matter of how forward it is. So I mean, even Robert Duvall saying, “There’s nothing like the smell of napalm in the morning,” and then taking a pause from it and going, “You know, one day this war is going to be over.” You can just feel how sad he is about that, and how crazy that is. And then you move on to the othercharacters, and then when they get to that farthest checkpoint where the bridge keeps getting knocked down, and he’s like, “Who’s in charge?” And the guy’s like, “S–t man, aren’t you?” No one knows what’s going on here. What does he say to the guy, Roach, the guy with the grenade launcher? “Do you know who’s in charge here, son?” And he just looks at him and he goes, “Yeah,” and then turns around and walks away. That’s when you know. You know who’s in charge? Craziness. The only thing that is in charge here is chaos. You can feel it, and I love it. And Lance, who’s tripping on acid, who’s standing on top of the bunker screaming, looking out, where Charlie is screaming back at him like, “F–k you, GI,” and he’s like, “Lance, get the f–k down!” But that’s the thing: Lance is all of us. That’s what I feel about that movie. He first gets up and he’s just like the good old surfer dude who’s just there and serving his thing, doing what he has to, and in the presence of all of that craziness, he is so affected by it. He’s like the frog slowly boiled in water. To the end, where you get there and he’s ready, he’s primed for the gospel of Kurtz, and he’s just there, and that would be all of us. That’s the experience that so many people had in that war."

"One of my all-time favorites is Apocalypse Now, because it shows the craziness of war, and you have the feeling that the shooting also was a big adventure. And this is what I like. What is lost, if you see war movies today — not like Pearl Harbor, that’s one of the worst movies of all time — but like Mel Gibson‘s Once We Were Warriors or Soldiers or whatever (2002’s We Were Soldiers), all that stuff, you feel it’s all fake. You feel they go in the evenings to their hotel rooms and it’s all good. But in Apocalypse Now, you feel like these guys were f—ed!"

"I would say Pulp Fiction, for sure. When you are a teenager, I would say, “What the hell is going on? If making movies looks like this, OK, I want to be a director.” Everything was kind of perfect; there was the humor. That’s why I was not just honored and happy to work with [Quentin Tarantino], but crazy happy. [laughs] When he told me he was doing the movie, I was dancing in the streets in Paris for hours. I had a sense of joy, for sure. So I would say Pulp Fiction, for everything we just love in that movie, like the dialogue, the shots, the lights, the actors, the craziness, the freedom of making something so freeing."

"Sometimes when the AirPods don't block everything out, or your on a plane, you really just want to shut the world off, I go with the Beats they keep it a little bit quiter. I got them without the cord, so I can just put them on, either just knock out on the plane, or just completely chill and relax. I actually do sometimes look forward to it, when I can just check out, you kinda live a life with a lot of craziness sometimes and those moments when you get to just relax and be in your own world are becoming more few and far between, so you learn to value that time, and these are a big part of that."

"Apocalypse Now, to me, is one of those movies where visually, I still watch that now and go, “How did he pull that off?” I’ve heard all the stories — the heart attacks, the house up for sale, you know, them going into bankruptcy — all the craziness, and I still watch that movie and go, “How the f-ck did they do that?” I mean, you’ve got cows being pulled in the air, and the whole military, helicopters flying everywhere… it’s so amazing. It should be a complete disaster. It’s the best example of “Just stick to it, and keep going,” you know. I just love that movie, and some of the memorable performances were just amazing. And it’s still one of the most beautiful films ever shot — no CG; all real."

"For me, Eraserhead is all about when Henry goes to visit Mary’s family. Those scenes hit the sweet spot of surreal absurdism, which is something I never really see in film, although it happens often in experimental theater. In film, the weirdness is usually either too grounded in narrative, which makes it too normal, or not grounded enough, which makes you stop caring. At Mary’s parents’ house, the squeaking puppies, Mrs. X brushing Mary’s hair when she starts to freak out, Mr. X’s non sequiturs, the catatonic grandmother being made to mix the salad—it all walks the knife-edge between craziness and normalcy in a way that’s both hilarious and disturbing. The scene where Henry starts to cut the chicken and everything goes bonkers is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I think the dialogue in this film is great—I wish there were more of it."