New York has followed Al Pacino, perhaps its greatest actor. Back in the 70's it was a lot more complex and gritty, with a ton more vitality and life force. Now its hammy and broad and falling apart and costs too much.

I feel like I'm pretty close to Sean in considering and wrestling with the show — I like it, I watch it, and sometimes I struggle with its message and point of view and general tone. I really don't understand how people can be super influenced by pop culture — that they think X because they watch South Park, but would…

To the extent it has one, the twist is that there is a kind of governing meaning in the world of the film; what happens at the end is "proof" that things happen for a reason. That obviously doesn't mean that one would view it terribly different on a rewatch (the way you would 6th Sense), but I suppose it counts as a…

Is there really a twist in Signs? I don't see anything in the ending that really redefines what happened up until that point, the way that 6th Sense, Village, and Unbreakable are all changed like that.

I feel like the reputation of the Village has improved a lot since it came out. Production design/cinematography is great, and there's certainly interesting stuff going on thematically. I agree the way he does the twist doesn't work, though, as none of the characters learn/confront their reality. If there had been a…

I don't find this too different from War of the Worlds (where they're felled by bacteria), and it really doesn't bother me. The point of the movie is about how the characters deal with the invasion, and about how it makes them reflect on ideas like faith. It isn't about how the aliens are defeated, in the way that…

Why do we still associate Shyamalan with twists in a negative way? The movies that are generally agreed to be his best (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) are the ones with twist endings, while the bad ones aren't. If anything its the best mark of quality for him.

I feel like of all the movies that my friends and I were into in 7th grade — Phantoms included — have disappeared from public consciousness. I feel like the big movies of today, maybe because they're part of big franchises that are hard to remember as a multipart series, aren't like that.

Unfortunately my uncle passed away before I knew who Phil Spector was so I never got a chance to ask about that one way or the other.

I don't know what you're referring to, but the Chernow bio of Hamilton talks at length about how letters sent from men to men at the time (admittedly, 100 or so years before Lincoln) were flowery in a way that seems romantic to modern eyes, without their actually meaning anything of the sort. Just a habit of the age,…

What if it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end?

You know I've had that general question — why should we believe that any nefarious thing he's done, if any, would be spelled out in black and white on his returns. Still, I honestly can't imagine all this being done because of something embarrassing that doesn't involve the law (i.e. he's not as rich as he says) or…

Honestly I've reached the point where nothing would surprise me about him. Not something embarrassing like the tape, and not something criminal like money laundering, and nothing something worse, like collusion. But trying not to get ahead of myself.

I read something about money laundering that seems a lot more credible. Something sexual would be embarrassing, but that's no reason to not release tax returns, the idiot opined on a pop culture site's comments board.

Have you had their lobster stuffed with tacos?

My choice is also a sax solo, but its for personal reasons rather than musical ones. My uncle played with Curtis Lee and was the sax player on Pretty Little Angel Eyes (solo kicks in a little after 1:45 https://www.youtube.com/wat…. It's nice because that song has stuck around a little, so every so often it'll come on…

Yeah, Married is full of hostility, which doesn't work for me. Seinfeld characters are essentially evil, but they get along with each other and the people they're up against are pretty cartoonish, which means it isn't as bracing. (Also, the show is more my sense of humor, and being funny answers for a lot of sins.)…

You really think so? I thought it was so forced. Surely there was a less-clumsy way they could've had Wayne leave Batman behind. Plus, Alfred's awkward speech setting the ending up is so on the nose. Maybe if that scene had been in Batman Begins it would've worked, but its the kind of thing that any screenwriter…

She was so good in P&R that it was unreal, so perfectly did she match what was already a insanely bizarre character. (referring to JR) It seemed almost like she was grown in a lab to play that part, rather than being someone with an actual prior career.

I'll venture that I've seen The Prestige a few times now, and it just doesn't work for me. So that'd go near the bottom, along with Following and Interstellar. For best I'd probably go with either Dark Knight or Inception.