"What other great films are there? Ah, for God’s sake, There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men. I saw those films that year, back to back. Just outstanding work by director, writer, producers, actors. Captivating, both men: Javier Bardem and Daniel Day Lewis — just iconic. Every time he steps on the stage, you know, you can’t take your eyes off the guy. And both films sit on the bookshelf as bookends, really, to that special year of film making."

"This is one I’ve watched a couple of different times in a couple of different forms. I’ve watched the film version and I’ve also seen the mini-series. I think when I first saw that it changed my idea of acting. I go back to it sometimes just to put myself back in that place where my discoveries about what was possible on a film and the level of immersion between people — this incredible dance that they do — really formed."

"First one I’d say is GoodFellas. When I was a teenager I slept underneath a picture of Martin Scorsese. I think GoodFellas is just a perfect film. From an efficiency of storytelling standpoint, from an entertainment standpoint, from a performance standpoint, from a use of music standpoint, from a cinematography and editing standpoint — to me it’s just a perfect movie. That’s a movie I saw when I was 16 years old, when I watched it in a theater 30 times. A perfect movie."

"Another widescreen movie, this one has American cars and roads, drivers and mechanics. The seventies saw quite a number of films with images of automobiles and white lines, and the smell of gasoline and roadkill. None are quite like this one directed by Monte Hellman. At some point, Warren Oates says something like “everything is too fast and not fast enough.” This film is a major reference if I ever need to shoot something in and around cars on roads."

"I saw Le samouraï for the first time at Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon, when I was a teenager. The main reason I went was because of an ad in the alternative weekly that said it was John Woo’s favorite movie (which meant a lot to me when I was sixteen). Over the last twenty or so years I have enjoyed it for many reasons: Alain Delon’s embodiment of cool, its evocation of 1960s Paris, its melancholy reflection on self-sufficiency and isolation."

"I saw this again at the twenty-fifth anniversary screening at BAM, and I (still) think it’s a masterpiece. Spike Lee’s day-in-the-life in Bed-Stuy feels more bracing and urgent than ever: angry, sexy, and very funny. It’s exhilarating filmmaking, both hugely entertaining and shocking. The ending is devastating. I always think of that image of three guys sitting in front of a red wall . . . the faces of the cops, driving past in slow motion, looking at them."

"There are so many Kurosawa movies to pick from, but High and Low was the first I saw, when I was fourteen or fifteen, and it was a shock to the system. I remember having a physical response to the compositions. I watched it again recently and felt just as excited. The characters move in perfect harmony with each other and the camera, new shapes constantly forming and breaking across the frame like a game of cinematic cat’s cradle. It’s totally thrilling."

"Rebecca Miller’s book begins: ‘Greta Herskovitz looked down at her husband’s shoes one morning and saw with shocking clarity that she was going to leave him.’ I knew the moment I read that sentence that I was going to fall in love with the book—not just because it made me remember an identical moment in my own life (not having to do with shoes) but because it was obviously written by someone who knew how to grab a reader by the throat."

"I pretty much could have picked any Kurosawa film. They’re all masterful. But the first time I saw Toshiro Mifune in Drunken Angel it was an absolute revelation: I want to do what that guy’s doing! He did it with style throughout his career, and I love him in all of his collaborations with Kurosawa (High and Low, Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, etc.), but his performance in this film, as a small-time gangster with tuberculosis, is badass. I love film noir."