This shouldn’t be a surprise by now, but Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are total film buffs — after all, they’ve racked up accolades for several film score projects. But what, you might wonder, are the prolific movie-music duo’s favorite flicks of all time? Letterboxd asked them just that, and you might be surprised at some of the answers.
Letterboxd caught up with Reznor and Ross at a recent red carpet premiere for Queer, the Luca Guadagnino-directed adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novella of the same name — it stars Daniel Craig, and likewise features a score from Reznor and Ross. While there, the two musicians and various members of the cast and crew were asked to make some picks for the site’s “Four Favorites” series.
Reznor repped Taxi Driver, Blue Velvet, Titane and Dead Ringers, noting that the latter psychological thriller possesses an “incredible sense of dread from the first frame to the end.” He added that the David Cronenberg feature was an inspiration for NIN. “Makes you feel bad, the whole time,” he quipped.
As for Ross, he likewise gave Taxi Driver and Blue Velvet their flowers, while also shouting out cop-comedy Beverly Hills Cop and Eighties-era French psychodrama Betty Blue. In addition to the Queer score, 2024 found Reznor and Ross serving up music for tennis/romance drama Challengers. We’d also learned from the pair that they’ll be delivering the score to the forthcoming TRON: Ares, which is currently set to be released in the fall of 2025.