I don't know about that. We say a classic is forged over time, but why would it take that to recognize something's greatness? Off the top of my head, E.T left people stunned when it premiered—Martin Amis wrote a famous review at Cannes—and time hasn't changed that opinion. Salman Rushdie on Charlie Rose talking about…

I learned a while back that there are two different questions: whether something is good, and whether you like it. Saved me a lot of incredulous frustration at others' opinions that couldn't see the greatness, as evidenced by the same text everyone else experienced, I saw. But in this case, we can look at the numbers:…

I rewatched Arrival for the first time. Stone-cold classic it is, one I wouldn't be surprised TCM shows in a couple of years and then it gets a Criterion Collection treatment. But not everyone shares this opinion! Like Mr. Rex Reed, whom I found out tonight hated, hated, hated this movie*. His review, like his review…

I'm all for high praise immediate reactions of art posted anywhere. That's how you know it's good—you have to talk about it and don't care if it's under a completely different article.

Good place as any to repeat that Gal Gadot is terrible in an admittedly underwritten character in the mediocre Keeping Up with the Jones, which I saw last night and which you weren't going to see anyway. But for any Gadot completists out there. (I have still to see WW, and am in no rush.)

But he's famous and rich, and decades of pop culture have portrayed women as into that. Also that being an asshole to women is attractive to them.

I didn't know that Rick Ross and Mike Pence had something in common. See, in this divisive time, we can all find common ground!

I should have mentioned that in her defense, the character here was pretty thin, just basically being a stoic action heroine, to contrast off of Hamm's (her husband) soulful regret.

Reading the first thread of this post, about McDonald's and minimum wage, makes me think of a good, concise formulation of Ayn Rand philosophy I recently read: that people are valuable based on how much money they make, and nothing more.

No employer should give you less than a living wage. It doesn't matter if cultural perception is that some jobs are just temporary because the employees are young and are expected to find something better. They're still jobs: people still take them because they need money to live, not because they want less money to…

I don't understand the thinking that a job doesn't have to pay a living wage. It's only fairness—the company is not compensating you for your work, while making much more money off you than it gives you in return—especially if the employer is a billion dollar global corporation.

Just finished Keeping Up With the Jones on cable. Among its many problems, one of the most irritating ones is Gal Gadot cannot act in this movie. She's very wooden. I haven't seen Wonder Woman yet, but given its praise, I assume Gadot actually can be a good actor. One comment in the AVC's review of the tepid…

But I haven't heard of any Republicans wanting to work with Democrats. The party's too extreme for bipartisanship, and the Democrats have to realize this and start using more forceful language when taking about the GOP.

If Trump weren't so stupid as to believe that Obamacare is a disaster and everything else the Republicans are saying, he would recognize that the way to be loved—being a narcissist, that's important—would be to actually go more to the left than Democrats are. And Dems are dumb not doing/realizing this too. How long…

Schumer's statement on this is far too militant. Calm down, firebrand. /s Seriously, Dems have to stop asking Repubs to work with them. (It's also apt that I saw Roy Andersson's Songs From the Second Floor for the first time, tonight.)

Thank you for mentioning MDB, which I forgot to in my defense of him. That movie floored me, and I can understand its inclusion and position on the NYT best films of the 21st century list.

Dramatic license for the purposes of the piece. I have no idea if Sullenberger did have self-doubts about himself and how he landed the plane, but if he didn't, that's a bigger fiction than portraying the NTSB that way. Which I took as them being his existential Grand Inquisitors, reflecting his crisis back at him in…

There may be some truth to that, though I hope not. But as a progressive myself, I find his films are good, and they're not actually Republican praising or liberal hit pieces. I think that mireading is due to American Sniper, which when I finally saw it, was surprised liberals had been attacking it. It was anti-war.

Mr. Greene, you know too much pop culture. Stop making me feel angsty that I haven't seen enough! I'm only a man! Not a nerd like the rest of you! *weeps*

Some great directors just use the same people over and over again behind the scenes. Don't know if Scorsese does that too.