The actor: John C. Reilly The character: Dewey Cox The film: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story The quote: “Goddammit, this is a dark fucking period!” This is probably my favorite part of Walk Hard because, despite the wet willy that this movie gives to every movie that had been or would be made about… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #53
The actor: Daniel Day-Lewis The character: Daniel Plainview The film: There Will Be Blood The line: “Now, my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!” How do you spell that sound that Day-Lewis makes between “I drink your milkshake” and “I drink it… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #54
The actor: Oscar Isaac The character: Llewyn Davis The film: Inside Llewyn Davis The quote: “If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song.” Think of your favorite Coen Brothers line, or maybe the best Coen Brothers line (presumably a more difficult project, given that I think I could… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #55
The actor: Steve Park The character: Nescaffier The film: The French Dispatch The quote: “I’ve never tasted that taste in my life. Not entirely pleasant, extremely poisonous, but still, a new flavor. That’s a rare thing in my age.“ As I write this, one of the more popular AI jests is to create some recognizable… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #56
The actor: Andy Serkis The character: Caesar The film: Rise of the Planet of the Apes The quote: “Ape alone weak. Ape together strong.” I very nearly had two quotes from this movie on this list, because try as I might I couldn’t justify Caesar yelling “NO” that first time. It’s a stupendous moment, expected… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #57
The actor: Sean Penn The character: Harvey Milk The film: Milk The line: “My name is Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you.” To the best of my knowledge, there are only two other people who use the word “recruit” in this movie. One of them is John Briggs, who says it a couple… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #58
The actor: Issey Ogata The character: Inoue The film: Silence The line: “The price for your glory is their suffering!” Another Martin Scorsese movie, another movie with a screenplay like poetry: Jay Cocks again. Without doing the whole “let’s bring up all of my favorite quotes from the movie” thing again, it’s worth beginning by… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #59
The actor: Daniel Day-Lewis The character: Bill “the Butcher” Cutting The film: Gangs of New York The line: “Thank God. I die a true American.” One of the writing talents that I’ve always admired is the way some writers have with what I can only call “old-timey language.” Whether or not it’s actually all that… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #60
The actor: Cate Blanchett The character: Lydia Tár The film: Tár The line: “If you want to dance the masque, you must service the composer.” I think what stands out to me most about this line—more than its presence in an instantly indelible scene, more than Cate Blanchett’s terrifically aloof and theatrical posturing, more than… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #61
The actor: Thomasin McKenzie The character: Tom The film: Leave No Trace The line: “The same thing that’s wrong with you isn’t wrong with me.” At the end of 2019, I was in an absolute fever trying to find as many “Best Movies of the Decade” lists as I could scrounge. Out of the thirty-seven… Read More Top 100 American Movie Quotes of the 21st Century: #62
Seeing Things Secondhand 