"Speaking of stylish, one of the reasons I’ve put this movie on my list is because I love the Scalamandre zebra-print wallpaper featured in it. But the film is wonderfully moving—and it has my favorite Gwyneth Paltrow performance ever; no one smokes more petulantly than she does—but it’s also a visual treat, from the aforementioned decor to Goop’s amazing polo dresses and ratty fur coat. In my experience, you either cannot stand Wes Anderson’s aesthetic or you want to move into it; I am the latter."

"In Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ in the ’70s, the military government had thousands of activists and political opponents ‘disappeared.’ This novel is about a mother and father dealing with the disappearance of their son. It’s a moving book that also has a lot of dark comedy in it. For instance, the parents accept free nose jobs in exchange for a debt. It also captures the comic absurdity of the bureaucracy of a dictatorship. What’s most interesting to me is, as one character makes clear, the truth tellers in life are so often written off as crazy."

"Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece proves he is the only true heir to Fellini (and Salvador Dalì as well). Brazil is over-the-top, terrifying, funny, and moving. A hilarious and violent dystopian tale of the future using elements of the past, it strangely seems more and more like our present. Terrorism, surveillance, cosmetic surgery, hacking, and authoritarian control: Gilliam’s prescience is astounding. Ian Holm turns in one of cinema’s great supporting roles as Mr. Kurtzman, Jonathan Pryce’s sniveling and cowardly boss. And it has one of the most crushing and haunting endings in movie history."