It's not THAT big a stretch.  Both are pretty heavily influenced by Dziga Vertov, except they're critical of the urban landscape that Vertov celebrates.

It's true that some of the episodes can be hackneyed and/or sentimental, but for me TZ is closer to Washington Irving than contemporary television.  (And sure enough, Serling drops references to Irving later in the run.)  If you watch it with that kind of expectation, it goes down a lot easier.

Not a common opinion, but I put Palindromes at the top of his work (and I think Storytelling is way underrated).  LDW I found less successful.

Really good point, re: tragedy versus propaganda.

Great article.  The prose is a little overwrought, but I agree with the arguments completely.  This:

Swedish film = Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, which is itself based on an old Swedish ballad.  I don't think there's a lot of connection between it and Straw Dogs, though, apart from the fact that both movies have rape and murders.   In SD Hoffman's character doesn't even know his wife's been raped, for that…

I love the original movie: it does a great job of capturing that feeling of creeping dread that's at the base of fish-out-of-water scenarios, but usually played for comedy.  When the finale comes it has its logic, but what's even more significant is how carefully they designed the screenplay so that each of the…

I love Solondz in general, but i thought LDW was his weakest film.  It has its moments - especially the eventual confrontation between father and son - but I was put off by his weird obsession with revisiting punchlines from Happiness in ways that made no sense.

I don't know about the AV Club, but I think both About Schmidt and Sideways are overrated, but Election is a stone-cold masterpiece.  I know it's a minority opinion, but - Sideways, especially - didn't do much for me.

In fairness he spent the interim period making '14e arrondissement', which is the best thing he ever did.

I think I'd have preferred to see Soderbergh's Moneyball.  Granted, it would probably fall short like just about every one of his projects, but at least it'd be something different and ambitious. People were livid about the reenactments/interviews, but why not?  A coldly analytical movie about a coldly analytical…

Agreed.  "Don't worry, he's not a cop" is one of the best lines in the show's history.

I wonder if Herzog made Into the Abyss specifically as a dialogue with Errol Morris.  I guess Morris wins that round.  They make a great pair, though.

Your description of Ides of March sounds almost exactly like Primary Colors.  Just replace Ryan Gosling with Adrian Lester, Clooney with Travolta, and the lukewarm review with a more positive one.

Couldn't agree more - in fact it's my favorite of his, if not my favorite documentary period.  Doesn't seem to draw the attention that his others do, in part because it doesn't have the heady political context of Thin Blue Line or Fog of War, etc.

Get this man a copy of Trout Mask Replica, STAT

Seconded.  I hope he's able to capitalize on how much the critics loved ATB, given that audiences mostly ignored it.  Which is a shame, because it's pretty great.

I'm with you on that.  Bamboozled somehow combines his best work and his worst work, all in one movie.

I'm glad somebody pointed that out.  When they pulled the top six I thought Josh was going to be on the bottom for the same reason as Fallene.  This show is a constant exercise in how little I understand fashion (or at least the judging of it on this show).

And it was probably some built-up karma, given that Anthony Ryan had come in second for first three episodes of the season (should have won the second, and did win the third but gave the victory to his teammate).  So even though Heidi is right about the ostensible week-by-week judgment, it wasn't a completely…