Kevin Smith

“His Girl Friday. Come on, man. This is like Hawks at his absolute best. Very influential film for me, even though it features old-timey people and stuff. Generally, I’m not a fan of old-timey, but this movie *censored* slaps, as the kids probably don’t even say anymore.”

“In terms of old black-and-white movies, it’s right up there with Citizen Kane. Well, here’s that’s... Look. I got 18 copies, not of this version of Citizen Kane, but of Citizen Kane. There’s room for one more because Citizen Kane... My– one of my favorite films, if not my absolute favorite film. Probably the film I’ve watched the most in life. Isn’t that weird?”

“Hollywood Shuffle, movie made by Robert Townsend, man. This movie made me build my boat because I remember, like– Number one, this is a legit *censored* brilliant, funny movie, with fantastic acting in it and stuff. And he talked about using credit cards to pay for the movie, partially the budget. And I remember listening to that interview– And this was long before I ever thought about filmmaking, but that information stayed with me because I was like, 'You could do that?'”

“They got to Bull Durham, kids. One of my favorite flicks. Susan Sarandon is magical in this, as is Kevin Costner. I hate *censored* baseball. Like, the American pastime is not for me. It’s *censored* boring, but I love baseball movies. Bad News Bears being the number one. This, I think, is my number two. 'The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom.' William Blake. Susan Sarandon says that in the movie.”

“Prince of Tides! That earns a drop into the bag. George Carlin is in this. He is right? 100%. Yeah, she treated him– Barbra Streisand treated George like a real live actor and stuff. Barbra Streisand did a director commentary on this? If Barbra Streisand had sang her director’s commentary, my Mother would have climaxed. She loves Babs. So the fact that she talks, it... I’ll have to tell my Mother, 'She talks.' My mom likes when Babs talks.”

“Is that Deep Cover? This is– I paid to see this in a movie theater by myself. And I had such a good ass time, man. Like, come on, who directed this? Bill Duke, right? Yes. Actors make great directors, kids. You know why? Because they sit behind *censored* a zillion directors over the course of a career. So when it becomes their time to step up to the plate, oh, they can knock it out the park. Bill Duke did that with Deep Cover.”

“This is the most powerful document for change I’ve ever encountered in my life. I went to see a movie up here in Manhattan, man, at the Angelika Film Center on August 2nd, 1991, and it was this movie. I’ve talked about viewing Slacker with a mixture of awe and arrogance. Awe because I’d never seen anything like it before. And arrogance because, when I finished watching this, one of the first thoughts I had was, 'If that counts as a movie, I think I could make a movie.'”