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" I'm a writer and director. And the movie I've seen a million times is 'Coming Home,' directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jon Voight, Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern. "
Jonathan Levine
Writer
Home
Hal
Related Quotes:
" I've been a huge fan of Hal Ashby forever. And I think that the distinctive thing about 'Coming Home' is the love story, and how - kind of emotionally real it is, and how these two characters allow each other to see their - kind of vulnerabilities. And it's great because it's a love story that's not really that cheesy, either. "
Jonathan Levine
Kind
Home
Think
" I think Giuliani started a trend that Bloomberg continued with rampant gentrification, and I think it's tough because why would any city choose not to do that? "
Jonathan Levine
Started
Tough
City
" I watched 'Return Of The Living Dead.' That one's cool, man. I like that one. "
Jonathan Levine
Dead
Return
Man
" Any time I hear certain songs I put in a movie, I have to not listen to them anymore because I associate them with that movie. They take on that association rather than the association I had when I first heard them. So it's kinda bittersweet to put a song in a movie, honestly. "
Jonathan Levine
Time
Song
Listen
" I think I'm always conscious of not letting things fit into a specific box. Being a filmmaker and trying to chart a career, you never want anyone to be able to pigeonhole you into one specific thing. "
Jonathan Levine
Always
Trying
Want
" I definitely think for up and coming filmmakers, people graduating from film school, people that want to do their own movies, horror movies are a great way to go. "
Jonathan Levine
Great
Movies
Think
" After 'Mandy Lane,' I didn't really know what to do because I didn't know anyone who'd made a feature yet. "
Jonathan Levine
After
Really
Made
" As a director, your expectation and reality don't always match up, and I think that that's... I think it's a little jarring. "
Jonathan Levine
Up
Reality
Director
" As I continue to evolve as a filmmaker, I'm going to continue to do different stuff. "
Jonathan Levine
Going
Different
Evolve
" I feel like comedy is where I'm most at ease, but I also have an allergy to silly jokes. "
Jonathan Levine
Like
Silly
Jokes
" I think that's the great thing about zombies, is, you know, going back to even 'Night of the Living Dead,' they've always been a tool for kind of holding up a mirror to us and showing us something about ourselves that we might not otherwise know. "
Jonathan Levine
You
Think
Mirror
" Right after 'The Wackness' came out, it was a really exciting time, and then it was a bit disappointing when it came out. Even though not that many people saw it, I was still getting offered some movies. I was thinking that people would just stop calling me since it didn't do very well at the box office. "
Jonathan Levine
Me
Movies
People
" The way 'Coming Home' uses music in general is incredible, but the final song that really kind of crescendos all of the emotion that the whole movie has kind of been building to is this song called 'Once I Was' by Tim Buckley. "
Jonathan Levine
Coming Home
Music
Building
" I just think a lot of movies are too long. I want to know how to make my movie as tight as possible. "
Jonathan Levine
Know
Long
Movies
" I grew up with Woody Allen and early Spike Lee movies in which New York was such a specific character. The city has a certain vibe and beat which really informs your entire existence. "
Jonathan Levine
Early
City
New York
" I have about 100 gigs of music, and I'm always going through thinking about what song I can match to a scene and all that. "
Jonathan Levine
Song
Thinking
Music
" For whatever reason, the films I gravitate towards do have these strange sort of tonal balances to them... I kind of realized on '50/ 50' why I liked these blending of tones, because I think it's kind of what life is like: funny one minute, sad the next, scary the next. "
Jonathan Levine
Strange
Think
Sad
" I'm always walking around with headphones on, creating my own soundtracks to whatever the day is. I think I have a poppy sensibility. "
Jonathan Levine
Day
Creating
Think
" I have a lot of friends with bad taste in music - some might say that I have bad taste in music. "
Jonathan Levine
Say
Some
Taste
" I was intimidated by Malkovich for, like, a couple of days, and then I wasn't. He's awesome. He's so cool. He was so wonderful to work with. "
Jonathan Levine
Awesome
Like
Work
" I've had a couple of family members deal with cancer, and I remember that moment where they're going into surgery, and you just have no idea what's going to happen, and it's really scary. "
Jonathan Levine
Moment
Scary
You
" That's the great thing about being a director. You have your list of things you have to worry about and things you don't have to worry about. If you can hire someone or cast someone who equates to not having to worry about, it's great! "
Jonathan Levine
Great
Worry
You
" I like a pretty relaxed, fun set. Everyone knows they can bring whoever they want and hang out. "
Jonathan Levine
Pretty
Bring
Like
" I was Paul Schrader's assistant for six months before I went to film school, and he's very much about knowing what's going to happen on every page before you even start writing dialogue - the entire plot and character arcs are mapped out. "
Jonathan Levine
School
Start
Writing
" 'Warm Bodies' was a more long-term thing; I had to write the script, who knew if it was every really going to happen, if I'd find the right actors, and so on, so I grabbed '50/50' because I just fell in love with it. "
Jonathan Levine
Find
Going
Warm
" I used to obsess on critical reactions to my films, and it's really not a healthy way to live your life, so my new take on it is simply, 'I hope people like it!' I'm not going to be looking at the tomato meter for at least a year! I was very lucky on '50/50' that most critics really liked it. "
Jonathan Levine
Hope
Lucky
People
" If you know how to shoot a scene, then you know how to shoot an action scene. If you've seen an action movie, and you watched it, and you paid attention to how scenes are constructed and where the camera is and how the camera moves, then you know how to do it. "
Jonathan Levine
Action
You
Know
" I really like using genre to tell a story about characters but also use it as a Trojan horse to tell social or cultural commentary. That's where the best stuff, especially in the zombie genre, comes out of. "
Jonathan Levine
Horse
Like
Story
" I have a cameo in every movie. In '50/50,' I'm in the back of the bus. "
Jonathan Levine
Bus
Movie
Back
" I always look at myself as kind of a work in progress. I hope that's not always the case. But for me, every film is a learning experience. "
Jonathan Levine
Learning
Work
Myself