"First of all, I would say John Sayles’s Matewan. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it — and by the way, you should, because it’s a really incredible film — but it was one of those things where my Aunt Mary Jean from Knoxville, Tennessee sat me down and said, “You need to see this movie.” It’s by the same guy who did this other movie called Brother from Another Planet, but this movie’s really one of the best strike movies. It had James Earl Jones, Chris Cooper in his first movie, and Mary McDonnell. It’s got an incredible cast, but it’s just got a lot of soul. It’s really one of my favorite movies."

"I love 400 Blows. [François] Truffaut is just a genius and, again, just there’s a total Cassavetian quality in his performances as well. I know that story was close to his own story, so that was very moving and just a totally immersive experience. I like him and a lot of the French filmmakers, obviously, for the exact reason we’re talking about. That last scene in 400 Blows where he escapes the children’s home in that really, really long tracking shot was just astonishing, just such an astonishing end to that film. That and when the kids steal a typewriter too, and they’re struggling with the weight of it; that was great. It’s just great, great fun."

"I really like Fargo a lot. It has everything. I love the Coen brothers. I love Frances McDormand, I think she’s just an extraordinary actress. She’s so funny in that movie, as Marge. I’m from the Midwest, I’m from Iowa; so obviously that accent’s really heightened, but it’s something that I hear every time I go home. It’s something that feels like very much where I grew up; that backdrop is exactly where I grew up. It’s definitely exaggerated but yeah, there’s definitely that, “Oh, oh my gosh” where I come from. And when I go home and after I have a couple of beers you’d probably hear it come out: “You betcha!” [laughs]"

"Paul Thomas Anderson. Magnolia. I just really love it. I mean, yeah, There Will be Blood is also a close contender; I love that too. But Magnolia — the audacity of it. I watched that movie and it’s scary by the end of it [laughing]. You’ve gone through this sort of tapestry of humanity that I feel is very hard to match in a lot of cinema these days. He is always surprising me, but that movie just… He finds a way to get the drama — he has a moment where everyone starts breaking out in unified song. And it feels totally authentic and earned. I’ve never seen a movie that does that but didn’t feel indulgent."

"And then I would say second would be Lars and the Real Girl by Craig Gillepsie. You read the log line and you’re like, “Huh, blow-up doll. Interesting.” But then, the whole movie is really talking about everybody’s desperate need for community. We’re not made to be isolated; we’re not made to be alone. And also how the town embraces the doll. There’s even one time when Ryan Gosling had to let the doll go, and the whole town came and sat in his living room, and they didn’t say anything. Many times, in those kinds of death scenes, people have a lot of talking, but they just kind of sat there with him. I loved that"

"[Laughs.] Yeah, I mean, all these things obviously exist to some extent, but this was just, “Here are people.” And these are four main kids who are sort of just making their first forays into romance and what it means to be young men and young women. It doesn’t talk down to them, it doesn’t assume things. It all sort of flows from within these young people and from the actors themselves, and it has a humanity that I don’t think has been achieved before or after in depictions of people that age. So I always thrust it on our students, especially young Latino students who don’t see a whole lot of depictions of themselves in American movies."