Also a nice reminder of how on his game Tracy Morgan could be before his 30 Rock persona sort of eclipsed himself. That's some very wordy dialogue and he's right on it.

They're likable in the sense that Seinfeld characters were likable. That is to say, objectively terrible people who are still a bit charming and easy to root for because we have the advantage of their internal logic on display. I do like the choice of making the most baby faced, sweet looking girl you'll ever see in…

No I know not everyone is saying he's oversensitive, and I agree he's wrong for blindly condemning a film he has not and will not see. But my general comment, the one you chose to respond to, was addressing the knee jerk crowd (and ages ago, the idea that Fuqua's response was in any way substantive), if you feel these…

"If you think the people here are claiming Spike Lee is being "over-sensitive" about slavery you're wrong (speaking of straw men)."

@avclub-570170146218082d2ca2544d57a48f1e:disqus That's a straw man. No one's making the argument that slavery itself is being treated as a joke, that's obviously not going to be the case. But the deeper, more difficult question is going to be if in reducing the storyline to a fun spaghetti western vigilantism tale…

@avclub-5bbc67c39fbdf1c74e28b86c595f6e4a:disqus Fair enough, I think I probably overreacted to what I perceived to be a disingenuous argument about film theory. I think we might have to agree to disagree in that I think what makes the violence different in Bloodsport or American History X is the aesthetics and not the…

"So, in other words, I agree that Lee's point is an important one to think about, but it is not a reason to reject a movie out of hand as he has done. All that does is make him prejudicial."
Yeah I agree, it's always dicey to judge a work before actually consuming it in its entirety, but even if the marketing wildly…

@avclub-5bbc67c39fbdf1c74e28b86c595f6e4a:disqus "Can a set of aesthetics, in and of themselves, trivialize violence? Well, I guess you can say all aesthetics inherently trivialize violence. Because the nature of art by definition is to create a duality where we experience both the emotions of a scene and our pleasure…

@avclub-570170146218082d2ca2544d57a48f1e:disqus I actually really, really like that first scene you mentioned. It would be an exceptional self-contained short film. The guy can pace a scene better than anyone, I'll always say. But I don't think it really "humanizes" anyone, the main function seems to be in…

I hear that opinion for the most part and responded to a similar point above. I'm not clear on what you mean by "allow" it to happen, and actually find that a bit intellectually dishonest as we've shifted the focus from the artist to the audience. Is the filmmaker not responsible for how the tone affects an audiences…

@avclub-5bbc67c39fbdf1c74e28b86c595f6e4a:disqus  Still not my argument. Offering qualified defense of Lee's position in the interest of perspective and engagement.

It's not my argument, it's Spike Lee's. I just said I found aspects of it compelling and it resonates with a similar discomfort I've had watching other Tarantino films. Similarly, I can accept someone who says Tarantino's revenge fetish acts as an emotional catharsis as long as we don't take it too seriously. But…

I'd say he had an extremely weak response, it's all critiques of tone and appeals to authority. And Fuqua mostly responded to whether Tarantino was racist or not, which wasn't even what Lee said. Tarantino can not be racist and still make a film that trivializes racism. Despite not seeing it, Lee made a substantive…

*Standing Ovation*

*Standing Ovation*

Yeah, it's a fine show with a talented cast, but it often falls into sub-Seinfeld mode.

Yeah, it's a fine show with a talented cast, but it often falls into sub-Seinfeld mode.

Mitchell and Webb did it!

Mitchell and Webb did it!

It definitely had one of the most original voices in television, especially animated prime time. Where every other show primarily trades on cruelty and amorality for it's humor (not that I find it offensive, but it's become fairly formulaic and predictable), Unsupervised traded primarily on a relentlessly optimistic…