When asked if any recent films have excited him, he thinks about it, stuck, and then answers, genuinely surprising himself: ‘‘ ‘Moana’! I thought it was beautiful.’’ (He later corrects himself and says it was actually ‘‘The Lost City of Z,’’ James Gray’s latest — Phoenix has starred in four of Gray’s seven films.)

When asked if any recent films have excited him, he thinks about it, stuck, and then answers, genuinely surprising himself: ‘‘ ‘Moana’! I thought it was beautiful.’’

[On similarity of his movie "You Were Never Really Here" to the "Taxi Driver"] I was asked about it, I can understand why people would draw the comparison to it. I think it is unfair... I mean it is still very nice, this is a great film, but it is really its own thing.

The thing that made me go “Ah, I’ve figured out how to do this” was a documentary called Overnight, about the making of the movie The Boondock Saints. The guy who wrote and directed The Boondock Saints had started making this documentary with his friends where they would show the process of making his first film. Then things went sour, but he’d signed a release, and he couldn’t un-sign. I thought, “That’s what you could do. I could start making a movie with my friend, I sign a release and I can’t pull back on it as things go bad.”

Paul gave me a film called On the Bowery [a semi-scripted depiction of Manhattan’s Skid Row]. That was astonishing to me, because I’d never seen alcoholism depicted like that. That was huge and important. Also Let There Be Light [John Huston’s documentary about traumatized World War II veterans]. These are guys who are clearly damaged.

Paul gave me a film called On the Bowery [a semi-scripted depiction of Manhattan’s Skid Row]. That was astonishing to me, because I’d never seen alcoholism depicted like that. That was huge and important

PHOENIX: Yeah, but there’s all of this horrible racism that white people don’t even recognize. Did you see Jumping the Broom? MITCHELL: I’m a black person. Of course I saw it. PHOENIX: I feel like all white people have to see the film just because I’ve never seen a movie in which most of the white characters in the movie were just working. It was fucking great. It was almost comical. There was a scene during the wedding reception, and there are, like, eight white people just carrying stuff. The main white character with some dialogue was the ditzy, stupid assistant. I enjoyed it so much because you never see that. But that’s something that I think white people don’t notice. They don’t notice that the fourth character is black and that’s what it always is. It’s always happening. It’s just the assumption that, “Well, that’s just a representation of life.”

It's getting to the point where they're making some pretty decent movies. I thought Iron Man was fantastic.

And so we ended up watching your comedy special. And it was this amazing time. I went to sleep. It's kind of a backhanded compliment,'cause I did fall asleep. But it was really towards the end though. I mean, I watched-- I'd seen it before. - Okay, all right. - Right. You know. Several times.

- You watched the movie Step Brothers more than any other film. - Yeah, I have.

River began tutoring his younger brother about cinema. “My brother came home and he was like, ‘We need to watch this movie called Raging Bull.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ Prior to that, I watched Caddyshack and Spaceballs. And Woody Allen comedies.”

River began tutoring his younger brother about cinema. “My brother came home and he was like, ‘We need to watch this movie called Raging Bull.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ Prior to that, I watched Caddyshack and Spaceballs. And Woody Allen comedies.”

River began tutoring his younger brother about cinema. “My brother came home and he was like, ‘We need to watch this movie called Raging Bull.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ Prior to that, I watched Caddyshack and Spaceballs. And Woody Allen comedies.”

It wasn’t like, this is a drama. It was just a movie. Like Dog Day Afternoon is, like, intense, heartbreaking, and fucking funny. And those are the movies that I love. And those are the movies that I pursue.