I love Video Games but I think the backlash came when they realized she was interested in capturing a target market with her sound (pitchfork/angsty cool teens) and seemed to be entirely fabricated to capture that market. She tried being a standard pop star (Lizzy Grant) but that didn't work so this was her plan B.

Nothing says schmaltz like murdering someone out of revenge.

The skirmishes throughout the film are also stunning in my opinion. There are shots with like 2-3 pieces of action taking place concurrently within the frame in the foreground an background. It's just incredible.

http://achtenblog.blogspot….

Gladiator is a fine academy award winner in my eyes. What film did you think was robbed?

I passed up a chance to see Wesley Willis and then he died like 4 months later…biggest regret of my life.

The battle scenes are too amazing to ignore. Also the sentimental schmaltz is mostly kept to the scene at the graveyard if I recall correctly. Most of the rest of film is not at all sentimental. Maybe Hanks's last words too, but nothing else really.

At least Spielberg got Best Director. If he hadn't that would have been an even larger tragedy.

I wasn't a fan. I remember thinking it was basically reference humor, where people laugh to show how smart they are for catching literary references, not because it's actually funny (Midnight in Paris another example of this).

Ben Affleck was the only part of this movie I remember liking.

A switch to singles releases is smart. Pop Culture moves so fast these days, he can't really keep up if he's limited to albums.

Well it's the name he currently performs under. The Microphones are probably better known.

This was on pitchfork earlier, but the video was removed from youtube. That's supposedly Phil Elverum (Mt. Eerie) at 1:51 if anyone cares

The story was incoherent though.

Smash was a such a missed opportunity. I had fun watching it even if it didn't work, and the music / choreography was by far the best part of it. This song was really good, but sadly this youtube version of it doesn't really do it justice.

She seems so stiff when she plays

I'm a Clash fan and I love Rock the Casbah.

Somebody Got Murdered

Isn't there only one other major black character?

Yeah I always thought the opening was more iconic personally…whatever that means