Reference Point: Cultural bonbons from film industry aesthetes

FILM 
 

Last film you saw that you loved:
Strange Darling! I know I helped make it but I also love it. Also the remasters of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran on the big screen.

Actor you would watch in anything:
Jack Nicholson

Favorite movie theater:
The Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. I hope it will reopen soon. The Hollywood Theatre in Portland is also fantastic.

Director(s) whose work you love:
David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky, Francis Ford Coppola, Nicolas Winding Refn, Kelly Reichardt

Scariest movie you’ve ever seen:
The White Ribbon sticks with me as one of the most chilling films—it’s not supernatural but it’s absolutely monstrous, as quietly cruel authoritarianism grows in a small German town. 

Film you would like to inhabit:
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Coveted item from a character’s wardrobe:
Tilda Swinton’s cream leather jacket in Only Lovers Left Alive

Film you will never tire of:
Repo Man!

Favorite horror soundtrack:
The Lost Boys

Last live show you saw:
Orville Peck

Podcast recommendation:
WTF with Marc Maron. I enjoy Literally! With Rob Lowe as well.
 

WTF with Mark Maron (Podcast)

listen

Default karaoke track:
I’m not a karaoke person. Trust me.

Favorite radio station:
WFUV Fordham University. It rules! Except on Sunday mornings.

The Lost Boys soundtrack

listen

BOOKS
 

Last great book you read:
The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville

Favorite authors:
Of late I’ve enjoyed revisiting novels by Haruki Murakami, David Foster Wallace and Hunter S. Thompson.

Book you consider required reading:
Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums 

Magazines or books on your coffee table:
We’re book freaks so I’ll literally tell you the first five things I see in front of me right now: Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon; Samuel Beckett’s Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable; John R. Stilgoe’s Outside Lies Magic; The Gary Snyder Reader; The New Yorker.

Writer you’d most like to have a drink with:
Walker Percy

ART
 

Favorite museum or gallery:
The Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It’s in an old train station and has a lot of Symbolist paintings, Art Nouveau and other works from the beginning of the modern era but trailing wonderfully creepy clouds from “olden” times.

Artist(s) you most admire:
Max Beckmann, Lyonel Feininger—the whole German Expressionist group, really. William Eggleston, Richard Misrach—groundbreaking photographers.

What’s hanging on your walls:
I just bought an incredible painting by Jeffrey A. Sims called Colony Collapse. It is a hyperdetailed yet surreal depiction of a crumpled two-dollar bill with dead honey bees scattered around it. You kind of have to see it to understand it. Maps, movie posters, guitars, Mom’s watercolors, Oregon local beauty shots, a mask from Costa Rica—basically every wall is full of art.

Piece of art you’d most like to own:
There’s a Greek mirror at the Met that has a relief sculpture of Pan’s face on the back. I was entranced by it as a girl and would go to the museum just to visit him.

DESIGN 
 

Do you collect anything:
Dice. Musical instruments. Art.

Most prized object:
Datsun 280-ZX Turbo car, Fender Rhodes electric piano

Designer/architect you admire:
Louis Kahn, Santiago Calatrava

Most beautiful room you’ve been in:
I remember being absolutely blown away by the indoor Roman Pool at the Hearst Castle when I was around 12. All glittering blue and gold with reflecting water. It may have been the start of my glam leanings—sparkles, tile, shiny things...yes, please!

Favorite quotidian design object:
Cordless, portable, rechargeable Bluetooth speaker

TRAVEL
 

City you most love to visit:
I guess New York, now that I don’t live there anymore. Also love New Orleans.

Favorite hotel in the world:
We all had a really great night at the Chateau Marmont after the Strange Darling premiere, so that’s in my head as a great place right now. I’ve stayed in so many hotels for work and it’s always a trip to get up to the counter and have a smiling stranger say something like, “You’re checked in for 163 nights.”

Most haunted place you’ve visited:
My head

Best vacation you’ve ever taken:
The most eventful certainly was going to see the total eclipse in eastern Oregon and reconnecting with my long lost Chris, who is now my spouse. I once went to the restaurant El Bulli in Spain, which opened a mind-bending door into the world of food as art and led to many cool and unexpected journeys since.

Place where you find sanctuary:
Our house. We call it Chezsca, which is short for “chez Scarface.” It’s kind of like a Magic Mountain–meets–rock n’ roll party house on the river that was a foreclosure in need of TLC. There is a pool inside at the bottom of the stairs and some big neon signs, so that’s where the Scarface comes in, though I hope never to find a slain Al Pacino floating around in the water.