Defending Your Life

“There’s Defending Your Life. It’s kind of a good example of the movies that I like there, and it’s so inventive, and you’ve got this unbelievable Performance by Rip Torn right in the middle, with the most fabulous way to understand and take on the existential Crisis.”

“Defending Your Life, director-approved edition. Albert Brooks. Is there a comedy better than this? I don’t think so. This is as good as you can get. Hey, Albert, I plugged it for you. Just… notice. I plugged it. I got you.”

“Defending Your Life. I love, love, love when Meryl goes LOL. We know no one wipes the floor with the drama better, but when Meryl Streep blesses us with a comedy, just like when Albert Brooks blesses us with an emotional scene. So, Defending Your Life: one of the craziest premises, one of the most remarkable films.”

“Defending Your Life. Albert Brooks, one of the greatest of all time. Me and Evan explicitly ripped off the ending for this movie when we were making our movie, This Is the End. We sure did. We did some work to change it, but it’s essentially the same ending.”

“And then Defending Your Life and… So, now, what a love story and what an imaginative way to, you know, contextualize a love story. So, okay, they go in there.”

“Except top-five favorite movies of my life: Defending Your Life. When I told Meryl Streep this may be my favorite Performance of hers because she’s so perfect and he’s so perfect, and it’s the most romantic film. It makes us reconsider our lives, and it’s the funniest idea of what happens to us when we go.”

“It’s staring right at me, so Defending Your Life. This is a perfect comedy. Came out in ’91. We were a year out from really getting serious writing Toy Story. I want to believe it’s why I fell in love with the concept of Albert Brooks being the voice of a fish. To have had the chance to be a front-row audience member for a one-man show in the recording studio with him for close to four to five years total was one of the biggest privileges of my career. But this movie is just flawless.”