"Many slashers have been made since with diminishing returns, and I think a lot of this film’s power, to me, relies on its honest channeling of the political and cultural violence endemic in the U.S. at the time. On an aesthetic level, the opening credits’ invocations of black-and-red sun flares are such a thrilling cosmic omen for the violence to follow, and the final shots of Leatherface spinning in circles before a setting sun are, to me, sublime."

"Three Italians! I remember crying really badly with that when all the films in the projection room are on fire. I remember that also it was a film that when I was really young I could see myself reflected in the younger part of the film. And you can grow with the film, you know. When you become more mature you find a lot of sadness in the story of the old guy while he’s watching at the beginning and the end"

"Watched a lot of this on my phone on the RER B because I kept seeing the cover or poster or something. Watched it in sections on my phone, which must be blasphemy. I watched it while I was in postproduction for An Oversimplification of Her Beauty and briefly became insecure about finishing the movie because I felt that, as a person making a movie about making a movie about all the women in my life, I was accidentally plagiarizing 8½"

"Then, I don’t know… Now I’ve got to start flipping coins. Should I say, The Godfather, or do I say Platoon, you know? Both incredibly influential films on me as well. The Godfather is such an interesting film in that it does a lot of things to establish character in place in a way that’s so economical. You don’t realize that you’re being given information; you don’t realize that you’re learning. It was one of the best-directed films of all time."

"It’s a documentary, but I remember liking Crumb a whole lot. When Crumb came out I would go and see it like three times a week; I would be bringing different people to see it. I’d seen a couple of documentaries before, from Errol Morris or whatever, but that, I mean that one took it to a whole other level as far as I was concerned. I just thought it was the most interesting family I’d ever seen in a movie, really."

"I think one of the things I like about this record, and most of the records I've chosen, is that it has a real self-contained universe about it. When you listen you don't imagine they've done that, or what have they done there, it just seems completely in its own world and self-existing. It's a really psychedelic and strange record, but it's also a lot of fun… a theme that won't run through most of the albums I've chosen. Hahaha."

"I can give you them as they come to mind; right now, when you say “five favorite films,” the first one that came to my mind — and I’m trying to think of different genres as well — the first one that came to my mind is The Shining. I do not know why, but that’s been one of my all-time favorite films. I’ve seen it about four times. I think that’s a lot for someone who’s completely petrified by darkness and lonely places."

"Because I think it’s one of my dad’s masterpieces, and Joe Strummer was someone who was a big part of my upbringing and was one of my dad’s best friends. I have such great memories of hanging out with the two of them. It’s something that means a lot to me. I really think my dad put his heart and soul into that film and that’s the kind of film-making I wanna do. No, I don’t wanna direct. I wanna act."

"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."