The major problem with the Andy Cohen sketch was that Desmond Tutu non-impression.   He's such a colorful character in real life, for chrissakes.

Yeah, it was weird and stupid, but I couldn't stop laughing at the shampoo ad.  "Yay!"

@avclub-e053e4f47a7ccbc51be254596e483d7c:disqus Or if not Saddest, then Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary.  I know the idea of a movie-ballet sounds off-putting, but since it's bound to a story people already know, and it's so absorbing and weird and well-done, that I find people tend to enjoy it despite their…

Double Yahtzee!

Really fantastic interview, and though it's hard to pick a favorite bit I have to give a tip to Maddin's excellent rewriting of Chekhov:

@avclub-0f29370d9da664c1e143182f37301063:disqus : Why are those your only two options?  Plenty of people enjoy his films without an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema - Saddest Music is just plain bonkers (here's the trailer), Dracula is really one of the best versions of Stoker's novel on screen (here's the trailer) -…

Lutz isn't pathetic.  In fact, he's a very good listener.

Um… okay?

Have you seen any of Maddin's films before this?  He's kind of an acquired taste, but well-worth investing the time in.  The Saddest Music in the World or Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary are good entry points, if not the short "Heart of the World" or "My Dad is 100 Years Old".

For those who complain that Guy Maddin keeps making the same movies over and over…

Buried was a not-very-good screenplay that kept upping the ante in forced ways, saved only (and somewhat unexpectedly) by a really great performance by Ryan Reynolds.   So yeah, this doesn't sound much better, even though I love claustrophobic horror.

Mark Lilly has quickly become one of my favorite characters on tv.  He's the Platonic ideal of the good-hearted but wimpy liberal, and I love him for it.   Especially in episodes like this, where his ideals conflict with his visceral reactions, and he struggles to do what he thinks is the right thing.  He's pathetic…

I like the fact that it's a two-parter because it allows the story to build to serious and difficult questions of strategy in a way that wouldn't fit into a short, single episode.  The review over at Mark Watches is probably the closest to my own feelings about the episode: this is about good plans going bad and bad…

Nits aside, I think this may be in my top 3 episodes (along with "The Blue Spirit" and "The Ember Island Players") because of how well-written, well-(voice)acted, and well-plotted it is.   Of the Zuko side adventures with the Gaang, Sokka is the best foil: even though they're a lot alike, his sense of recklessness and…

Nope, Vertigo for the win.

Shouldn't she be in the "In Memoriam" section?

She was a guest judge that week.  I'd trade her and the guy on the far left for two other guest judges from this season: Jennifer Tilly and Elvira.  Now that's a SCOTUS I wouldn't mind appearing before.

With you on both the squirmy greatness of this movie and the apologies for Blair Witch.  I don't have much good to say about the aesthetic per se (I don't think you 'gain' anything by intentionally shoddy camerawork), but both of these movies stand on their own merits and are really, really good.

I for one welcome our new television overlords.  Especially if the judicial branch is the RuPaul judging panel, although lord knows you're not getting a lenient sentence with Michelle Visage up there.

Amen to all of that.