"Between Opening Night and A Woman Under the Influence, Cassavetes. I still dream, to this day, of having an experience. I thought the borderline guys are the modern version of this, of creating a really intimate, truly intimate environment, without any kind of producers with creative control, or any kind of desire of a specific distribution, but to just make stories that you want to make because they are close to you and personal and interesting and character-driven. Gena Rowlands, to me, is so amazing to watch. That’s something I discovered more in my early 20s, Cassavetes movies.#"

"There might have been personal things in my life right here, because I wanted to strip things down. Another inspiration was a lot of country singer-songwriters. I’m friends with a guy named Terry Allen, who’s a great, very eccentric songwriter. Both of us have worked with Lucinda Williams, who everybody knows is an incredible songwriter. There’s an early group called the Flatlanders, and their first records or demos were just amazing. I was really immersed in these people who were writing very simply, as far as their musical arrangements, and very heartfelt. I was getting a lot of inspiration from them."

"For me, 'Soul Love' is an amazing love song without being too sugary. It isn't boy-meets-girl, jealousy, betrayal, sort of thing - it wasn't normal. It was a spiritual kind of love song, so I have a lot of respect for how he kept it in that kind of a concept. I didn't really know what it was about, but the concept is about a love of a person and a love of the spiritual side of man, which is my personal take on it. Might not be what he meant, but that's how I have always felt about it."

"I purchased this around the time that I decided I needed to own as many Criterion titles as possible. Also may hold my personal record for shortest time between first seeing a film and spending thirty dollars to own it. I just loved this film and was always rewatching it. Jarmusch was fairly major for me in my early discovery of truly lo-fi independent cinema, and I often found myself returning to his earlier films to study just how simple a film can be and still seem wildly innovative and truly, idiosyncratically the director’s own."

"Another classic foundation piece of modern cinema. My personal favorite thing about this film is the relatable dynamic of the two main characters’ somewhat undefined relationship, a dynamic that after fifty years still feels as modern as ever. For different reasons, I’m also a big fan of the widely panned 1983 remake starring Richard Gere, in arguably the coolest role of his career. The remake is no Godard—really it’s a different film—but I challenge anyone to forget that they’ve ever seen the original for ninety minutes, revisit the remake, and not admit its criminally overlooked qualities!"

"This movie and Criterion’s other Edward Yang release, Yi Yi, really show what a master he was at creating incredibly personal and nuanced character studies that are both sprawling and multifaceted. A Brighter Summer Day is so immensely heartbreaking to me for how it depicts Si’r, an awkward, withdrawn kid who is under siege from all sides—at school, at home, with his friends and rival gangs, and with his first crush—battling his way through it all as best he can but spiraling inexorably toward tragedy. Also, the restoration of this film is seriously amazing—so thankful for this release."