"One of my other favorite films is Don’t Look Now, which is kind of an antecedent or… something we were going for a similar vibe with our film, The Forest. I think, to date, it’s still one of the most disturbing movies that’s ever been made. I love how Venice is a very unique specific place in that movie. I’m a huge Donald Sutherland fan. I had an opportunity to work with him at one point and always loved that movie, and I was just gushing over that film. And I like its sense of stranger-in-a-strange-land, how it’s about a westerner that’s trapped in this very unique and specific environment, which is something we were trying to mimic in The Forest."

"This is probably my favorite film in the whole collection. It’s a solid kick in the seat. Stellar staging, camera, choreography. Every inch of this film has a pulse. It’s the story of a director (Roy Scheider) who, at the end of his life, is editing a film and mounting a production. He knows he’s dying, but he doesn’t engage with that fact. That’s exactly how I would like to go: deep in my work. There were at least two periods in my twenties when I listened to Ben Vereen’s closing number, “Bye Bye Life,” multiple times a day for months on end. Looking back I don’t think I was having the best time in my head, but the song was very danceable."

"That’s probably my favorite film right now. Drinking Buddies was very inspired by this movie. I just love how it managed to be a real successful mainstream Hollywood comedy but it’s really complicated. The characters in this film are married, they have children, they’re still talking about open sexual relationships, and doing drugs, it just… it feels real to me, is how it feels. I’m very impressed by it, not only for its sense of humor which I think is spot on, but also for its sort of willingness to dip into dramatic elements and to have central characters who are not necessarily likeable all the time, who are, you know, sort of confused and behaving in very human realistic ways."

"My last one probably seems… it’s really true though: Friday Night Lights [laughs] is one of my favorite movies. And I only say it like that because I… look, I love it. Maybe it’s my love of football playing into it as well. I read the book before I saw the movie. The book is great. I was really into it and I thought, there’s no way the movie is gonna be as good as the book and, I don’t know — [director] Pete Berg did it for me. I’m a huge fan. Maybe it’s all those boys. I don’t really know what it is. Any time that movie’s on TV, I gotta watch it. It’s weird, I know; but you know, that’s me."

"When I was a kid it was shown each year around Christmas on Polish state television. No idea why—maybe the communist authorities hoped Marilyn Monroe would undermine the solemn spirit of Christian Christmas. It was a favorite of my father’s and I remember watching it with him as a kid and not getting any of the subtleties but just being gripped by that world, the cool characters, the beautiful images and places, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the car chase with booze coming out of punctured caskets, the party on the train, the music, the jokes. The charm hasn’t worn off over the decades, and Billy Wilder’s irony and generosity, and his wisdom about life, will forever remind me of my father."