Lena Dunham

“Town Bloody Hall. I love nothing more than when misogynists and feminists have a fight at a large event space. That's what this is about. I can watch it for hours and then put it on again.”

“Love & Basketball. This couple, this romance makes me want to play sports. Everything you want a movie to be, and it's a true comfort film for me and a classic example of a romantic comedy that is not bogged down by the genre. I love it.”

“Streetwise/Tiny. These documentaries by the brilliant Mary Ellen Mark tell the story of runaways who are making it on the mean streets of the Pacific Northwest in the '70s and '80s. These kids' speaking is better than anything adults could ever write, and Mary Ellen has the most tender, sensitive gaze on their lives. You will laugh. You will cry. These movies are unbelievably special. Trivia fact for you: after his first movie got into Cannes, I got Josh Safdie the biggest Streetwise poster in the world, framed it for him in yellow, and it's still in his office. So if you didn't think it was cool, it is cool.”

“My Brilliant Career, I mean, this film by Gillian Armstrong, it is touching, it is powerful, it is feminist. Judy Davis's hair, she's going to the Met Gala, guys. It's going in the bag.”

“Okay, Daytrippers. I love this because when I used to go to Tower Video when I was a kid – shout out to all the cool twentysomethings at Tower Video who helped me pick videos. Greg Mottola introduced me to so many of my indie film icons. I mean: Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, Anne Meara. Look at all of that virtuosity in one place. That's like a lot of indie-film inspiration for one little girl. With a big dose of kind of… like, kind of gay panic. It's perfect.”

“This is a newer favorite for me. This is Okja. I love this for so many reasons, but I am a pig parent and I think that this talks about the beauty of the interspecial bond and the kind of tenuousness of the mycelium network of animal and human interconnections in a way that so few movies do.”

“And I forgot that I'm also allowed to grab things that I want to see. So, for me, that is Night on Earth. How can I be a New Yorker and have never watched Night on Earth, you may ask. This is something I told a lot of men that I'd seen so that we could make out.”

“Defending Your Life. I 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.”