"You can adore this book for multiple reasons. The story, the style, the craft… There are no heroes here, just human beings, with all their flaws and failures. Although it is a book about a certain place and a time, and the dark side of the American Dream, it equally feels timeless and placeless, such is its universal appeal. The Great Gatsby is not a story you can read once and put aside, it is a book that deserves to be reread at different stages of life—a companion rather than a classic."

"This is one of my favorite films. The way that Louis Malle shoots Jeanne Moreau—those are some of the most beautiful walking scenes I’ve seen. She’s walking in the rain with her head held high, lost in herself, mumbling, and with that amazing score being played by Miles Davis. There is something so modern about the film, and it feels like it opens so many doors. When I was making A Fantastic Woman, I was trying to get a little bit closer to the elegant approach that Malle used to capture Moreau’s presence."

"That movie is spectacular in so many ways. It has everything a documentary should have: unexpected twists, characters that are flawed and complex and crazy. And the story is told in a way that it feels like a compelling — almost fictional — narrative but its obviously as real as it gets. But there are times when you’re watching it and you just go, “Oh my God, did this really happen? Is this real?” I love documentaries and there are a lot of great ones. I’m a big Werner Herzog fan as well, and Errol Morris."

"I actually just talked to Joseph about this last night, one of my all-time favorites is Babette’s Feast. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why. It’s very pure. It’s not tricky at all; the filmmaking is almost invisible. I think for the most part, it feels like there are non-actors in the piece — although I’m sure they’re actors — but it’s not an actor-y piece at all. It’s just beautifully conceived with a really generous heart at its center. It just really moves me, I saw it again last week."

"Radiohead is definitely Thrice’s collective favourite band. As much as we all listen to a ton of different stuff, Radiohead is a constant inspiration and influence. As difficult as it is to choose a favourite Radiohead record, for some reason In Rainbows feels like the most consistently listenable record. From the moment I heard the record it had a comfortably lived-in feel to it, to the point that I didn’t realize quite how good it was until its genius had slowly swelled in my mind after weeks of listening."

"When I’m thinking about what draws me to some of these films, it’s really my love of watching great characters experiencing some kind of break with reality. And this movie illustrates that. First of all, I love the idea of someone trying to sell their first-born child to the devil for an acting part. Insane! And then the character of Rosemary, embodied beautifully by Mia Farrow, is so compelling. You see how a woman can lose herself in the process of protecting her child. It feels accurate to the experience of being pregnant."

"My uncle was a paranoid schizophrenic for his whole life, and I always strived to understand him through works of art. When I first saw Bergman’s depiction of schizophrenia and how it affects family members, I knew I was not alone in my quest to understand the human brain. Then when Lodge Kerrigan came along with Clean, Shaven, it was the first film that I believe truly depicted the honest horror of what it feels like to be imprisoned in a brain that is not yours to control."

"I adore Robert Altman, and in some ways this feels like the least-Altman Altman, but it’s like no other movie I’ve ever seen. Putatively the story of two women who became roommates in a resort town, it’s about so much more: female identity and the slipperiness of the self. I first saw it, cut up by commercials, when I was ten or eleven, and I felt like it was whispering secrets about the nature of womanhood into my ear and I’d better listen close. I still think that."

"Titanic: the world’s second highest grossing film in history. It is really the only love story in the top five that feels epic. I know Casablanca is set against the backdrop of World War II, and yet this one is epic, a giant ship, and we all know what’s going to happen. We don’t really know who was on board, but they came up with a story about a couple that falls in love while they’re on board. To me, that has earned it its place in the top five"