The actor and director talks about his formative experiences watching Miller’s Crossing, Hollywood Shuffle, and The Elephant Man; praises films by past collaborators, including Richard Linklater and Terrence Malick; and shouts out a very special Criterion commentary.

The award-winning actor highlights performances he admires, including John Hurt in The Elephant Man, Peter Sellers in Being There, and Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich.

Nov 6, 2014 — These are “ten movies that taught me about movies,” writes filmmaker Robert Greene, director of the documentary features Owning the Weather (2009), Kati with an I (2010), Fake It So Real (2012), and Actress (2014), and editor of Listen Up...

Nov 29, 2011 — Elephant Boy: Child’s Play It’s hard to imagine a movie role more perfectly suited to the actor playing it than Toomai in Elephant Boy (1937), the part that made Selar Shaik—known as Sabu—one of the least likely superstars in Western...

Mar 18, 2026 — This month’s highlights include a collection of corporate thrillers, a survey of an emerging generation of trans auteurs, and a new installment of Adventures in Moviegoing with Mary Bronstein.

Oct 16, 2025 — This month, join us for a Thanksgiving feast of some of the movies’ most memorable family reunions, or delve into the dark alleyways of noir mysteries built around protagonists tormented by amnesia, memory holes, and drunken blackouts.

Oct 24, 2023 — This November, learn the art of the con from some of cinema’s craftiest swindlers, or saddle up alongside some of the most complex and determined female characters in the history of the western.

Apr 20, 2023 — This month’s highlights include tributes to Jennifer Jason Leigh and Seijun Suzuki and a collection of Asian American films from the 1980s.

Mar 20, 2023 — Among the highlights are a collection of erotic thrillers, a David Lynch retrospective, and a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of one of the most iconic moments in silent cinema.

Jan 12, 2022 — Gifted with the looks and suavity of a young Elvis, the “Wicked Game” crooner shares with David Lynch an obsession with 1950s Americana—and a knowledge of the darkness at its heart.