"One of my other favorites is Defending Your Life, the Albert Brooks movie. It’s my favorite of his movies. I was kind of at the exact age where… I was graduating high school when that came out, and it spoke directly to me for whatever reason. Also, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder in a movie theater than the Past Lives Pavilion. It’s a really, really great movie. I don’t know if it’s my second favorite movie ever, but I would put it in my top five."

"I would watch that movie on VHS every night before bed for maybe two years. I’ve always felt a very close kinship with middle-aged women. [laughs] When I was in elementary school, I felt like I understood it. [laughs] I don’t know why. It’s three greats, three great female comedians, and the final song and dance at the end, “You Don’t Own Me,” was something Sarah Paulson and I recreated many a time, filming Martha Marcy May Marlene. It had a new meaning, all of a sudden."

"I have friends who never read books, and so when they ask me what they should pick up first, I always give them this one. I tell them there are some books that are like drugs, and will give you a quick hit, but if you want something that will stay with you and resonate for a long while afterward, then try this. I read it for school, and it speaks to the power of the book that I could analyze the bugger out of it and still not fall out of love with it."

"Huge fan of Marlon Brando. For this man to come out of the shadows playing Don Corleone was just captivating. And it never disappoints; to this day it doesn’t disappoint. That movie is still a spectacle of Americana storytelling with a performance by him which is just inspiring. And he was an inspiring actor, he was certainly somebody who I still go back and watch and… the music, the story, the whole trilogy — It was very much connected to my youth as a young man about to go off to drama school."

"I gotta throw a musical in there, and I’d go with The Band Wagon. Singin’ in the Rain is more exuberant, but [Vincent] Minnelli is one of my favorite stylists in cinema. You know, I love {Fred] Astaire, and I’m crazy about that film. I’ve loved it since I was in high school. Often, these favorites come and go, and they change position on your list, and you make room for other things that maybe you didn’t appreciate as strongly when you were younger, but I’ve always been crazy about that movie."

"Breakfast Club. That movie is awesome. I love it because it really gets to me, especially Anthony Michael Hall‘s part. When he’s talking about how he feels lonely and how he feels pain, too. He calls out Molly Ringwald. He’s all, “You don’t think I feel this way. F— you, Claire.” I love that. I love that. That part gets to me so hard because I had his spirit in high school. Even though you can relate to everyone in a certain way, I feel like I related to him the most internally."

"This movie came out when I was at film school, and everybody was talking about it. However, I resisted seeing it, because it sounded pretentious to me, the idea of a movie made up entirely of single-take scenes with black in between. It wasn’t until a couple years later that I saw it and realized it’s one of the oddest, most sincere and funny movies I’ve ever experienced. Entirely human and completely unique, it’s a movie I’m pretty sure I could watch every day of my life and still enjoy each time."

"I would have picked Crooklyn but you guys haven’t put it out (yet), which I really do believe is one of Spike Lee’s most undervalued films. But Do the Right Thing had a similar influence on me growing up. It’s Brooklyn, it’s beautiful, it’s got a cast that is absolutely flawless—too many great performances to mention—and it was revolutionary and in-your-face. The cinematography by Ernest Dickerson is stunning and iconic. I felt so alive the first time I saw this film in high school and have in every subsequent viewing."

"I can only thank the irresponsible video store worker who rented this film out to my little cousin and me when we were about thirteen (it was issued an 18 certificate in the UK). The uncut, brutal attack on Murphy and his unfolding semiconscious robot revenge stick with you for life. The ultraviolence is almost funny in parts, because Verhoeven manages these over-the-top scenes so expertly. And if you haven’t tried to down a whole can of Coke and burp “twenty seconds to comply!” then you haven’t been to my high school, pal. "