I was being callous, but the thinking, if any occurred at all, was that things would have to get much worse to get better.

There's a Frank Sinatra song of Trump regretting leaving his easy life for this job here.

After that speech, Donald Trump is my president. PERIOD! (Didn't see it, but Van Jones deserves more trash talk after the events of last week.)

I thought it would come down to Americans actually losing their health care. I would want Democratic congresspeople to not get on board with any new health care law so Americans know who exactly is to blame and come out en masse to vote. Look, we might have to lose a few people, as terrible as that is, if we are to…

Only a few episodes I've seen in their entirety and they weren't bad, but the constant shoehorning of politics into almost every scene wasn't natural and became annoying. I didn't watch the show long enough to know why Nancy Travis and Tim Allen were together. As a regular family sitcom without talking about the…

I'm still a bit of a snob when it comes to the New York Times Bestseller lists. I am an omnivorous reader but people seem to read the frothy, bad books too much. So I eschewed reading Girl on the Train for a time, until I just picked it up and surprisingly found that I liked it. (The movie I've heard doesn't do the…

Terrible Ad watch—So Carl's Jr/Hardees is trying to clean up its image, I guess, by not featuring swimsuit models eating giant burgers. Those ads became pretty vulgar. I think once after Andy Puzder was too controversial a Labor pick, and withdrew, the new ad campaign began. So it's copying Jack in The Box, KFC, by…

I liked it! Though you could excise Shyamalan's very self-aggrandizing plot. But I remember liking it for the most part walking out of the theater. I liked that his early films depicted genre and supernatural stories in realism, with some poignant melancholy. Haven't seen a film of his since the terrible Happening. I…

The Guardian's scathing review—which does what you're talking about a bit hysterically— sounds like the critic had personal stakes in the story.
https://www.theguardian.com…

After seeing this movie, and finding it fantastic, let me see if I can defend against some of the criticisms here.
—I read Frankie's vulgar monologue as how misogynistic finance/investment culture can be. It may have had nothing to do with Madoff and his business (unless the real Madoff was misogynistic) but I found it…

Well, Nixon was his VP, and later did the Southern Strategy. I'm sure there are examples, but I can't think of a country offhand where a guy like Trump was elected without decades of previous history in the country paving the way for him.

I liked this episode. It had funny, solid jokes, and was outside of the show's usual character-jokes paradigm. They chose not to include Santa's Little Helper. I didn't dislike The Simpson's movie because we didn't see the terrible things he did that would haunt him forever. Writers are the White Gods here, choosing…

In the grief over the election, I did get mad at her for running, when she had been vilified by Republicans (unjustly and with lies) for over 20 plus years. Correctly categorizing it as the "vast right-wing conspiracy" she should have seen how it produced such hatred of her among conservatives. But, in her defense,…

I don't remember what Bush's replies were, but he at least did keep Trump talking, unintentionally giving him more rope to hang himself, which 62 million Americans did not take. I'm still struck by the soap actress who met them and how she deflected their creepiness like a pro, which is sad for all the women in the…

Since she was a writer as well as a performer, I assumed she got more work behind the scenes than in front of the camera. But maybe they didn't use her that much at all. Shame then if she were a good writer and performer.

The Wizard of Lies. Outstanding. DeNiro is playing one of his best roles, but holy crap is Michelle Pfeiffer glorious. The AV Club gave this a B-. No. Levinson holds two truths in his head very well: that Maddoff was a narcissistic scumbag who caused pain to a mass of people (wrecking his family), and that he was also…

So out of all the films shown so far by world class directors, Dowd's favorite by far only gets a B+. I would say maybe too high of a standard there but then he did give the overrated Logan an A- (even as a superhero movie, it wasn't that grade). I'm with him though on Malick! Shine on you crazy diamond.

"Feel they have to" is as the mission, as getting of an obstacle for the mission. The mission is their own version of doing good, of saving more lives than taking.

They also don't know the conditions in the Soviet Uniton—the reason this season is partly set there. They're deluded, in part because their entire lives—their work, marriage, children—have been tied up with the state, originated in the state. I disagree it's not a feature. They don't like killing people—it doesn't get…

I heartily endorse the great, world actress—like Swinton and Binoche—doing movies for big and small, Hollywood and not, American and not, directors and movies.