"Then you could cut away from films like that and say a film like Zulu, with Stanley Baker and Michael Caine. It’s just a film that, no matter where you pick it up — like the first two — you have to keep watching. I think I watch that film three times a year."

"The best voice. Even against Leonard Cohen’s, Bowie’s, or whoever’s – Frank Sinatra’s is the best voice. My favourite was the period in the Sixties when his voice was just unbelievable. The only thing with Frank is you sometimes think he is just standing there and all he’s thinking about is shagging someone straight afterwards. It’s that good – it’s like he’s taking the piss. Did he mean it? I can’t see how he could, cos he’s thinking “I am going to fuck off to Rio de Janeiro like it says in one of these songs” or “I’m gonna shag someone absolutely beautiful and then I’m gonna get pissed.” That is sometimes what I hear, and you can’t be that good. It’s like he’s written the words, but that’s another thing, to be able to do that with the words – which were generally brilliant in those days, lyrics have gone by the wayside these days, it’s generally Les Miserables crap now. I’m sure Sinatra would have puked up had he heard my man Michael Ball strangle the fucking life out of things. I love Michael Ball just because he’s so crap, but when he’s on telly he fluctuates in weight, so sometimes you think: who the fuck’s that? He turns into that Doctor Who bloke, Colin Baker. He’s dead funny in interviews and you have to have one of them on the telly, and it was either him or Bono, and I decided he’s the one."

"In this political season, it’s important to remember that politics has always been a dirty business. Robert Altman scores big with two very well-aimed political targets: the unraveling of Richard Nixon in 1984’s Secret Honor and the media circus surrounding a presidential campaign in his 1988 miniseries Tanner ’88. I grew up watching comedian Rich Little doing Richard Nixon impressions that are seared into my brain. Philip Baker Hall is not doing a Richard Nixon impression. He is Richard Nixon. Sans gimmicks. It is a gut-wrenchingly good performance in what is virtually a one-man show. Tanner ’88 stars Michael Murphy as a decent liberal Democrat who—SPOILER ALERT—does not take the Democratic nomination. Sound familiar? Yeah. Depressing. Haskell Wexler’s 1969 film Medium Cool should really just be called Super Fucking Cool but then you’d lose the play on the word “medium” and boy is Wexler playing with medium here—a fictional story, shot cinema verité style, against a backdrop of the very real riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It’s a doozy and especially resonant as we watch the circus leading up to what is sure to be an ugly convention season"

"In this political season, it’s important to remember that politics has always been a dirty business. Robert Altman scores big with two very well-aimed political targets: the unraveling of Richard Nixon in 1984’s Secret Honor and the media circus surrounding a presidential campaign in his 1988 miniseries Tanner ’88. I grew up watching comedian Rich Little doing Richard Nixon impressions that are seared into my brain. Philip Baker Hall is not doing a Richard Nixon impression. He is Richard Nixon. Sans gimmicks. It is a gut-wrenchingly good performance in what is virtually a one-man show. Tanner ’88 stars Michael Murphy as a decent liberal Democrat who—SPOILER ALERT—does not take the Democratic nomination. Sound familiar? Yeah. Depressing. Haskell Wexler’s 1969 film Medium Cool should really just be called Super Fucking Cool but then you’d lose the play on the word “medium” and boy is Wexler playing with medium here—a fictional story, shot cinema verité style, against a backdrop of the very real riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It’s a doozy and especially resonant as we watch the circus leading up to what is sure to be an ugly convention season"

"In this political season, it’s important to remember that politics has always been a dirty business. Robert Altman scores big with two very well-aimed political targets: the unraveling of Richard Nixon in 1984’s Secret Honor and the media circus surrounding a presidential campaign in his 1988 miniseries Tanner ’88. I grew up watching comedian Rich Little doing Richard Nixon impressions that are seared into my brain. Philip Baker Hall is not doing a Richard Nixon impression. He is Richard Nixon. Sans gimmicks. It is a gut-wrenchingly good performance in what is virtually a one-man show. Tanner ’88 stars Michael Murphy as a decent liberal Democrat who—SPOILER ALERT—does not take the Democratic nomination. Sound familiar? Yeah. Depressing. Haskell Wexler’s 1969 film Medium Cool should really just be called Super Fucking Cool but then you’d lose the play on the word “medium” and boy is Wexler playing with medium here—a fictional story, shot cinema verité style, against a backdrop of the very real riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It’s a doozy and especially resonant as we watch the circus leading up to what is sure to be an ugly convention season"