The endless Hitch comparisons are silly, especially as De Palma's a much more original and versatile director than given credit for. Carlito's Way, Blow Out and Casualties of War are his best films, absolute masterpieces, and there's very little Hitchcock in any of them; they buck the "all style no substance"…

I recognized a church from a brief wedding scene as being across the street from my Grandma's old apartment. (Right by the John Hancock Bldg; I think the whole movie was shot in/near Chicago).

I'm a big Altman fan but this movie didn't click for me until recently. The first time I just thought it was a weak satire and so much more conventional and uninteresting than Altman usually is. On second viewing I still found the satire to be weak and not the movie's strong point (Jonathan Rosenbaum was right in…

Come on. While I'm sure a lot of vinyl owners are just riding the bandwagon of its supposed "hipness," the rest of us buy records because they generally sound superior to any other format. And no, you don't need some ridiculously priced system. And no, it's really not that hard to keep a record from breaking in half,…

I'm not nearly as into Radiohead as I used to be (I was utterly obsessed), but nowadays I'd put Amnesiac as probably their best album. I love its jazzy, melancholy atmosphere, and it's just a hell of a collection of songs. Life in a Glass House alone…

I'd put maybe 5-10 other SFU episodes above it, but it certainly is amazing (and probably has the best and most elaborate opening death!) I also love the more subdued and darker lighting scheme to it; I dunno why but it's as if they suddenly decided to Gordon Willis it up for that episode (and others in Season 5, too,…

Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends. [Except for Teti's SFU reviews ;) ]

I'm really surprised that wasn't even mentioned at all… Dude was in like 100 episodes (in just 3 seasons)! I'm currently almost done with Season 1 and finding it pretty addictive.

There's a disconcerting lack of Carlito's Way in the comments here. I think that's without a doubt De Palma's greatest film, just a masterpiece — Cahiers du Cinema weren't far off in naming it the best film of the 90s. And it has nothing to do with Hitchcock, either: it's a kind of unique gangster/film noir hybrid,…

One of my favorites. I can think of few movies more purely watchable (and re-watchable) — in fact, the first time I saw it I watched it two or three more times that week. I never want it to end and find myself incredibly wrapped up in the plights of these admittedly very fucked-up characters… it's just masterful…

I see how Antonioni isn't for everybody, but it's still sad to see him always so eternally neglected. I love all of his features from 1960 to 1975 (and I think Identification of a Woman is great, too) — they're basically all masterpieces. But recently I've actually found that it's the English-language "international…

Episode 6 is actually possibly my favorite. Like most people, I was disappointed by the last three episodes of S1 when they first aired, but on a re-watch my opinion almost reversed and I found the last three at least as compelling as the first five. And as great as the tracking-shot fourth episode is, it still feels…

Mantegna was so amazing in Mamet's Homicide. That movie doesn't get nearly enough attention considering it's a total masterpiece. I like House of Games a lot and all, but Homicide is the real deal. Too bad he wasn't asked about it in the RR piece a few years back.

I really liked the classical Hollywood-esque score in the orgy scenes, and didn't even register that it went against the show's typically more modern digital minimalist pulse (then again, this season has been using a lot more noir-ish horns/strings).

I'll be patient. Your SFU reviews are possibly the best TV writing currently underway on the net, or some such hyperbole — really, just outstandingly insightful. And Season 5 is such a masterful and powerful season — by far my favorite — so I can't wait to see you dissect that. The premiere episode, A Coat of White…

Yeah but even if the last two episodes are A+ television (and I really liked Sunday's episode, for the record), they can't undue the fact that the first five episodes were so… just… muddled and fractured and largely dramatically inert. It really only feels like the story got started in Episode 6, in a way similar to…

I don't get why everyone's so down on this season. I was expecting to hate it — the show's original creators are gone, after all, and this is Showtime… but while the first episode was jarring/annoying in how it reset everything and made all our favorite characters magically back together again, everything got better…

I think it's fantastic, and the critics totally missed the boat on what is a rare genuinely intelligent genre film… it's pure Mann, and paradoxically both his most abstract film yet and his leanest and most conventional narrative since/along with Collateral.

Just to let people know, the second episode of the season is streaming on the Sundance website for some reason. Of course I couldn't resist and watched it too. Without spoiling anything I'll just say that this season is off to a terrific start, though similarly to last season it's very much a slow burn in the first…

Actually the elegant framing of the scene reminded me more of Mad Men than Sopranos.