Agreed with this.  The problems I had with Anna Karenina were entirely unrelated to its production design, which was outstanding.

Oof.

Beasts was one of my top three films this year, warts and all.  The editing is choppy, especially in the first third of the film, but that's my most stinging complaint.

Thanks for asking about Igby Goes Down.  I'm a huge fan/evangelist of that movie, and it was unfortunate that it only managed a small following.  Very funny, well-written, and moving - I get that the subject matter and the characters are off-putting, but in the same way as the obvious Salinger style that Steers was…

Oof… So close to the real thing it's almost less funny than White's actually list, but kudos for nailing the tone and strained puns.

Then the bikini falls off and there's a habit underneath and she flies off to safety with her aerodynamic wimple.

Then the bikini falls off and there's a habit underneath and she flies off to safety with her aerodynamic wimple.

They love themselves so much they give awards for both "Best" and "Outstanding" debut by a British writer, director, or producer.  That's some chutzpah.  Or bullocks or whatever.

@avclub-d4c5630db0ec3444ec43c0982a9e83d3:disqus : Yeah, it might cause people to recall Yakov Smirnoff, and that would be a tragic.  Dmitrievich it is!

Click the link.  It was a joke.

(pedant warning)

Why couldn't she pull off a foreign accent?  We all know she's fluent in German.

I don't think it's an accident that his best film was the animated one.

Yeah… Whatever problems that movie has, both the direction and art design are stellar.

@Scrawler2:disqus : if you haven't seen it, I'll back up @avclub-cfe912f5cb3aa572bd1c9ae2a9b82207:disqus 's assessment: Dreyer's use of close-up is insane (in a good way).  You feel like you're going through the same hell as the heroine, but in an artistically satisfying (rather than unpleasant) way.

It's a good thing, too.  Can you imagine what it'd do to Matt Damon's career to play a gay man?  Sheesh.

@avclub-f121d09285898f1c66d66f1e6f0455a6:disqus : The Informant is an uncomfortable movie, because its treatment of (spoiler? maybe?) mental illness is a little too glib, but since the whole thing's from Damon's viewpoint, it goes down much easier.  And I'll add to the chorus that Matt Damon has never been better.…

Which is also a pretty great movie.  Where Laughton took a thriller and turned it into a fairy tale, Green took the same thriller and turned it into something mythological.  It's my favorite of Green's movies.

For me the image that's most seared into my brain is dawn in the barn loft, with Mitchem on horseback, silhouetted in the background.

chiiiiiiiiiillllllllDRENNNNNNNNN!