Robot Keanu would have had the good sense not to take Kenneth Branagh's phone call.

"Dude! Hell sucks!"
"Totally!"

*gets deck of cards ready*

"THIS END UP"

Hi Mr. Sim, enjoying the AV Club so far?

But the vagina had a gun!

Alice is probably my favorite of his recent discs Dr. S—it's got this low, eerie vibe to it that's really unique in his work. And he covers a lot of stylistic ground too—there's a big Brecht/Weill influence in his post-80's work of course, but this one and Blood Money feel like the albums that take that influence the…

Harbinger, I totally understand, and I don't think it's necessarily a limiting factor—you just have a different set of expectations in what you want from a film. Frisson is valid no matter what narrative style does it for you. I get the same breathlessness going during the last 20 minutes of Singin' In the Rain and…

I'd add "Alice" and "Blood Money" to that list, Dr., though as advanced studies after the others you mentioned.

Arte Johnson? WOW. I'd love to hear that.

I'm with Monarch as well. "God Only Knows" was the song my wife and I used for our first dance at our wedding reception. Everyone we told about it said "Wait, what?" until we suggested they have a look at the lyrics.

HELL YES.

Harbinger, I dunno—there's just something about that film that just pulled me in and held me rapt. I wish i could quantify it, but it just strikes a tension in me that keeps building and building, right up to the end. It's a powerful work about identity and how it defines—and limits—us. I could watch it again right…

Harbinger, I really need to do this now. Thanks.

::sounds Film School Cavalry bugle call::

Depeche Mode
I fucking hated them when they first hit big. First song I heard by them on the radio was "People Are People," and I thought it was shit. I didn't like any of their stuff for a long time, ignored it or derided it when I heard it, until sometime in 1998 or so when "Personal Jesus" came on WXRT and I really…

The VU stuff took me a few listens to get into, probably because I was so steeped in other 60's music that I just couldn't get into what they were trying to do. I tried again a few years later and their albums made a lot more sense to me.

I spent 35 winters in Chicago before moving to New York, and there is SUCH a huge difference here. Much milder, and much less chance of dying of hypothermia between your front door and the corner.

I borrowed the "Watching the Dark" box set from a friend back in '93 or so, and liked it okay, nothin' special . . . until I took the time to really listen to it. The long, searing solo at the end of the live version of "Can't Win" made me sit up twice, and the sheer power of the songwriting on "Walking On a Wire"…

Persona was my first Bergman, and oh man what a mindmotherfucker of a movie that was to watch. I was actually breathless during the last twenty minutes.