"Okay, back to black and white, a (real) documentary from the talented Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin about door-to-door Bible sellers. I probably shouldn’t say this, but Richard Linklater sent me a bootleg copy he made when he screened it at the Austin Film Society in the late eighties. I loved the handheld camera work and how each salesman is depicted as a nuanced, dramatic character. Deeply moving, but not without a sense of humor."

"What else comes to my mind? Bicycle Thieves was always one I loved, too. Again, deeply moving, operatic Italian story. Impossible to see the film and not weep. The simple life of people just trying to get through the day in very hard times. High unemployment after the second world war — a bicycle is the ticket out of unemployment and poverty. That’s a film that also still works. I see it every couple years. I look at that again."

"There’s arguably no more famous knitter in literature than the crafty Mrs. Marple (pun intended). She’s a sly old lady who endlessly solves crimes while simultaneously knitting sweaters, and crocheting socks. The Moving Finger could stand to feature more of her, but it stands as one of my favorites for the simple fact that a cast aside old woman, outwits an investigator from the Scotland Yard and concocts an elaborate plan to catch the elusive murderer. "

"A film of perfectly realized proportions about broken marriages and failed utopian ideals. Slyly understated and very funny, this portrait of a Swedish commune in the mid 1970s is filled with vivid, affectionately-drawn characters, incredibly sympathetic children, and, in the end, a profoundly moving final scene. When I have lost hope in humanity (which sadly occurs more frequently than I would like) I re-watch this stirringly beautiful film and feel my faith in the world restored."

"The Iron Giant is the movie that makes me cry the hardest. It’s just the best movie. It’s so good. It was sort of my test movie with girls — which is gross — but I would show it to them, and if they didn’t love it, I was like, “Alright, there’s something wrong with you.” The ending is great, when he says “Superman” is great, “I am not a gun.” I mean, so many moving moments. It’s just perfect."

"Right? So this is a love story about a summer fling. It incorporated music and dance into a story that rang of nostalgia and the world as it used to be, which seems so different, and yet the emotions that all of the characters experience — from the couple that falls in love, or the parents or the sister — they all ring with authenticity. It all comes together in a way that is both memorable and moving."

"In turns moving and funny, Backman’s novel ventures into the life of Ove, a man in late middle age who has adapted to his lonely new world by becoming, frankly, a crabby old fart. But I wager that you’ll soon fall in love with Ove and be deeply moved by his situation, and after spending time with him, may perhaps gaze at the world around you with a little more empathy than when you turned the first page."

"I wanted to throw in a film as well and this is a real classic. There’s a lot to say about it but what I really love is the location. It takes place in a vaguely French/Italian/Mediterranean environment. It’s like a fantastical Amalfi coast or Cote d’Azur seen through the eyes of a Japanese genius. Like all Miyazaki, it can be appreciated by people of any age and has deep, moving insights about growing up."

"Niedecker lived most of her life in Blackhawk Island, a remote and marshy setting in Wisconsin, where she scrubbed hospital floors and cared for her deaf mother while writing some of the most quixotic, minimalist, moving poems of the 20th century. I know many by heart, like this one: “My friend tree / I sawed you down / but I must attend / an older friend / the sun,” but I still wouldn’t want to be without the hard copy."