It's The Magician, you really have been working too hard.

Now I just picture Norman Reedus sitting in a onezie under the christmas tree holding a new crossbow going "Yeah it's okay…I guess."

I don't know if it's better written so much that he handles his shit. Being the only medically trained person, a crack shotgun shot, and handling your impromptu amputation axing like a champ gives you more license to moralize than being the dude who drives the RV.

T-Dogg was the ultimate "another man."

@avclub-f9fd5ec4c141a95257aa99ef1b590672:disqus I was sure you were linking this:
http://www.youtube.com/watc…

@avclub-22eda830d1051274a2581d6466c06e6c:disqus You understand it can be both toothless and offensive to pile on one of society's most victimized, marginalized groups? Those aren't mutually exclusive things.

I'd go one step further and say the joke was how typically romcom-ish everyone was treating this HORRIBLE SHAMEFUL THING. Ho ho ha ha, what a backwards world where people don't abuse and ostracize a person that doesn't fit neatly in the gender binary.

I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's definitely perfect, not a single wrong note. The Devil, Probably is his most interesting film, but not as perfect. Otherwise, yeah he makes just flawlessly constructed films: Mouchette, Diary of a Country Priest, L'Argent, and his Joan of Arc is extremely underrated. I…

Aww, I love White. I think it gets a bad wrap (well not bad, but less ecstatic) because it's comedy, or anti-comedy, and perceived as a lighter fare. But Kieslowski has a great, pitch-black sense of humor and his control in that film is as tight as either of the films surrounding it. And holy hell, July Delpy never…

Yes! First time I saw that I thought, "Oh, so this is what it's like when someone doesn't regard film as a primarily visual medium. They create a truly complete masterpiece."

The only thing that makes me hesitant to agree is that I actually like the New York Sessions more, which might implicitly disqualify something as "perfection."

Love the Harakiri pick.

For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn. (I know it's probably not true, but it's one of those apocryphal stories I can't let go.)

Two great filmmakers of unmatched discipline came to mind, first Bresson's A Man Escaped: ruthlessly procedural, uncompromisingly naturalistic, and it literally pulls you in with the tension. By the last five minutes my face was 6 inches from the screen.

@avclub-90c88bf435e7bdafcb26109a12313c7d:disqus Exactly, it's supposed to give the impression of spontaneity and authenticity, which is more of an active decision than gets made in actual documentaries, but I think a secondary function was to not take away from any of those small asides that foreshadowed a major plot…

1. I know the security cameras are different from what Tobias is criticizing in documentaries, the reason I cited it was in response to your question about how The Wire was shot in a documentary style. It's just an example of things that evoke cinema verite. Has nothing to do with the perceived quality of "cookie…

Actually the point I'm making is that you're conflating the two. The characteristics of a poorly made documentary you cite are subjective: static long-takes (not a fan of Tarkovsky?), boring talking head shots, and poorly arranged visual flow. A book that is misspelled and has the vocabulary of an 8-year-old is…

@avclub-d7f43e1fb2d4977c86163d9b0cb07814:disqus I think for that analogy to be true, so called "cookie-cutter" documentaries would have to be shooting their subjects from a mile away and out of focus. They don't, because they're made by competent filmmakers who chose to let their well-framed subjects and not their…

Of course it is. Not dogmatically, it's not The Office, they're not literally trying to present it as a documentary, but the cuts to security cameras, low-saturated colors, and handheld cameras are of course meant to suggest a fly on the wall perspective. Virtually every critic who's written to any extent on The Wire…

Exactly, though my example would have to be "Why We Fight." What Eugene Jarecki does through mostly talking heads and archival footage (and I have particular respect for using as little narration and title cards as possible) in taking on such a massive topic with such clarity and concision is nothing short of a great…