"Denzel just became Malcolm, and Spike Lee did an incredible job. And again, the story behind that of getting Oprah, whomever else to aid in it, finishing the movie. Even Spike, and what he did as an actor, even if it’s sort of playing his thing. It was just really, really good. He’s done, obviously, great ones. You know the other ones, Mo’ Better Blues and School Daze, and Do the Right Thing was just unbelievable. But there was so much polish and the brilliance in how he did this testimonial of an iconic guy that many people at the end started to really relate to, even more than Dr. King."

"I was also introduced to Michael Powell’s work during film school, and this one particularly blew my mind. I love when all the kids rush into the theater at the beginning to get good seats in the balcony. A title comes on-screen that reads, “45 minutes later,” but the shot never cuts or changes. From that point on, I knew I was in good hands. This film taught me that silent-film techniques could, and probably should, be employed in modern sound films. It has taken me several projects of my own to incorporate this lesson, but I’m getting there. I also love films about artists and the creative process."

"The first, and to date one of maybe three, film I ever bought a second, superior edition of. I have seen this film perhaps ten times in the theater, and watched it at home maybe twice but still felt the need to own it, and then own it again. I came to this film because, my freshman year of film school, we did a class on cinematography, one on music, one on acting, one on editing, etc., and then watched this film as an example of something that does every one of those things with sublime perfection. I never get tired of revisiting it."

"It’s the first of Haneke’s film I saw. When we were in film school, Sean [Durkin] called me and said, "You've got to see this film." We went to the NYU library and he first showed me two scenes: the one on the train where Juliette Binoche gets spit on and the red room scene where she gets directed off screen by Haneke. It was one of these moments where I had been waiting to see a film language that really spoke to me and this film had it, it made so much sense to me. From there I fell in love with Haneke."

"My main thing for music has always been the radio; that’s where I’ve heard things. Around age 5, when I was getting ready for school, my mum would get us up, and we would have breakfast in the kitchen, and the radio would be on. It would be the BBC Radio 2, which is the easy listening station. So I remember hearing a song called “If You Could Read My Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot whilst I was having my hair brushed and trying to keep still—because if you moved when you were having your hair brushed in the morning, my mother used to get in a really bad mood."

"I read this book in high school when it was first published. It had the reputation of being “dirty.” It did not disappoint: I was all of 14. It was also deliciously funny. It still is. Its status is secure and I doubt there’s a “Best” list it’s not on. It’s wildly romantic, scathingly satiric of middle-class Americans as only a European aristocrat can see us, and ultimately deeply moving. Lolita is the light of everyone’s loins. Humbert Humbert’s despair is anyone’s who has loved and lost in vain. Nabokov “gets” America and Americans. He is one of the great writers in English and it wasn’t even his first language."

"It’s probably gonna be a very comedy-heavy list, but, one of my favorite movies is Superbad. Big Judd Apatow fan. I kinda always have been, still am, and that movie actually came out, like, my senior year of high school, so it was kinda like the perfect timing for me. It was right before me going to college, and if you remember Superbad, that’s what their whole quest was. Jonah Hill, Judd Apatow, Michael Cera, all those guys, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader — those are all still, to this day, some of my favorite comedians and actors to watch. That’s a big one for me."