"I love European cinema. I made a proviso that you have to watch it with the Swedish subtitles on, not dubbed in American. It’s terrible when it’s dubbed in American. It’s really a drama. It’s the story of a young boy who meets a young girl who just happens to be a vampire. But the editing, the way they show the bleakness of the world, the way that they show a period in time which is nondescript — they say it’s the modern world, but it feels like the modern world that has gone by somehow. Very beautiful part of the world, it’s sterile and full of snow. I watched that one night; a friend recommended it to me. I was in my house on my own, at night, was very scared of it, and fell in love with it. I’m not a huge fan of horror movies, to be fair. There’s no reason for me to bring that into my life, that horror element. But with Let the Right One In, it was worth it because the performances and the story were both so brilliant."

"One movie that’s always kind of a runner up, and I never really mention it because it’s so different than my other favorite films, is Notting Hill. It’s kind of a weird film to put in the group. But it’s such a perfect romantic-comedy and such a perfect vehicle. It’s like a fantasy, every man’s fantasy of meeting a beautiful movie star and being absorbed into her world and somehow making it work out. I love Julia Roberts, but that movie really made me fall in love with her, and Hugh Grant, he was such a likable guy in that movie. The supporting roles are so strong. And just the story of, just the world that… you know, I live on the very edges of this world, but just the world that Hollywood, that these people live in. It was just kind of a really interesting story. It wasn’t just a basic romantic-comedy; it had a lot of things going for it. But that’s definitely one of my favorite films. That’s one of those films that I watch every couple years. I just pop it in."

"I'd been a fan of Queens of the Stone Age for a long, long time, from early on. I could have picked any of their records but …Like Clockwork is my favourite. It's just a true record, it's a representation of a man that's been in music for a fucking long time, close to as long as I've been alive for, and it's amazing for a man like him to be releasing records like this so late into his career, songs with such power like 'My God Is The Sun' which is a formidable rock song, and 'If I Had A Tail' which has the swagger the Rolling Stones wish they had. I just love that Josh Homme does whatever he wants and it's undeniably Queens. He's invented a sound from his own style. I'd always been a fan and I was waiting for this record for a long, long time, but it took things to a whole other level. I don't get excited over many records, but with this and [Nick Cave's] Skeleton Tree I had the same sort of feeling. Sometimes you worry about your favourite band releasing a new record because you just want it to be good, but this rewrote everything I thought about them, and everything I knew about life. That's what I love about them, and pretty much all of these bands. When a band is able to surprise you late in their career it's a wonderful thing."

"I loved when Criterion started making these massive box sets, like this and the Rohmer Six Moral Tales. The idea of including a second edition of a film you already love (in this case, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie; see also: Brazil) is genius and shows a complete mastery of the importance of supplements. I guess this is a fairly obvious and oft-cited pick, but oh, well. It’s incredible, and learning that the five films are included because they are the ones Cassavetes produced independently and that Gena Rowlands ended up owning the rights to was fascinating. Tricky rights issues can unfortunately cause masterworks to languish in undeserved obscurity, so the partnership that brought us this collection feels particularly monumental."