"The latest - and maybe the best - collection from one of my favorite comedy writers, Simon Rich. Several of these stories have been published in the New Yorker, and have become those rare comedy pieces that everyone I know is always talking about and forwarding around."

"Renoir is in my holy trinity of filmmakers. How rare for an artist’s love of people and performance to be matched by his or her sense of craft, curiosity, experimentation, and adventure. French Cancan is my favorite of his, the most joyous, celebratory, wondrous thing."

"I just finished The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck. A deep, dark psychological story about strangers stranded after a bus breaks down at a mid-California lunchroom. My favorite element is the way there is no 'main character' and everyone's inner dialogue is explored"

"One of my all-time favorite movies is The King of Comedy, which is a Martin Scorsese movie. I think it’s a very different movie — there’s so much great De Niro; it’s a different kind of character for De Niro, which I loved watching."

"Okay, I’m getting carried away. But I can’t help it. Here again, Time Bandits would be ranked as my favorite of the two, for its innocence and subversively “kid-friendly” delivery—though at its heart, it’s every bit as dark as the priceless Brazil."

"Okay, I’m getting carried away. But I can’t help it. Here again, Time Bandits would be ranked as my favorite of the two, for its innocence and subversively “kid-friendly” delivery—though at its heart, it’s every bit as dark as the priceless Brazil."

"One of my favorite films by Milos Forman and so bittersweet as to leave an aftertaste. Glorious in black and white and poignant as hell, it’s one of those films that reminds you why you fell in love with cinema in the first place."

"Modern Romance, written and directed by and starring Albert Brooks, is my 2nd favorite comedy. Brooks’ masterful performance as the obsessively — if not historically — jealous boyfriend is so naked and so honest that it has no equal as an original take on the romantic comedy."

"I love all of Sarah Waters’ historical fiction but this is my favorite novel, set during and after WWII. It starts slow but picks up insane momentum, using reverse narration to follow the characters backward in time to the explosive wartime scenes that shaped them."