"Comedy boils the global stew down to our common humanity, making difference attractive rather than frightening. I like that Kaurismäki can engage with heavy contemporary problems in a gently humorous way. And he has always managed to show working class characters as full individuals."

"I loved that about Lenny as well — it combines this documentary feel and captures a spirit of who the true people were, separate from who the performer was. I love that sort of dialogue in cinema in general. It’s sort of the difference between the private and the public."

"What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? … renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world … and the means to irrevocably destroy it."