I think Devils & Dust deserves more credit.  The rockers — "All The Way Home", "Long Time Comin'", "Maria's Bed" — are slightly subdued and excellent.  Many of the songs represent a return to the more poetic, verbiage-stuffing style of the early albums, which, at least for me, is often more interesting than the…

The Artist, Hugo, and Midnight In Paris are the purest examples of what Tasha is talking about.  Possibly there's a case for Moneyball and The Help *embodying* without necessarily presenting the same message.

Scott, I'm curious about your 'familiarity breeding contempt' comment.  I've had the same reaction, from time to time, to filmmakers with very defined styles and choices of subject.  I blame them for treading the same ground and with less return.  I feel if they don't make a break soon, I might start yelling at the…

Doesn't Jackass 3D belong in the discussion with My Bloody Valentine and Piranha as "consciously silly, but at least somewhat effective" uses of 3D?  Surely you can't outdo the comin' atchya moments of a movie that had dildos, actual genitals, feces, and livestock comin' atchya?

It's funny, I'm just getting into Rudy Wurlitzer's work, having heard never even heard the name (well…you know what I mean) until a couple years ago.  Now as I'm starting to comb through his novels, this really great interview pops up.  I'm excited to check out more of his film work, too.

I named my dog after her. I know some people wouldn't take that as a compliment, but it's quite a tribute in my family.

Several to choose from there. The opening Spring parade (burning the old witch of winter). The fascist parade. Arguably the parade of boats out to see the cruise ship "Rex". Certainly some parading going on at Gradisca's wedding.

Right there with you. I immediately thought of the Fluffytown sequences (designed as a riff on exactly this topic). What was the actual parade celebrating, again? Was it Polish New Year or something? I remember it was an uncommon national group.

Scottsboro Boys
Deserved a better run. It had great music, inventive (and challenging) theatrical choices, and way more brains than your average Broadway show. I'm not trying to insult Broadway, by the way, but the economics of that kind of theatre make for a relatively conservative artistic output in a lot of ways.…

Also, we should never bemoan opportunities to hone our Herzog impressions.

My understanding is that the voice is still being put together. It sounds like a pretty interesting and time-consuming process. Maybe we'll get to hear it soon.

The subject deserves a lengthy (i.e. essay to book-length) response, starting with the surprisingly complex point of what we mean when we talk about "character development".

Unless you consider the opening stasis to be a spoiler, not really. There's a specific scene from the premiere that gets mentioned, but I don't think you'll be too upset with knowing the contents in advance.

clarification
Hey Todd,
Very interesting thoughts, and timely, really, since it seems so many people have identified Betty as an immediate problem moving forward with this season of MAD MEN (as you mentioned, her deployment in Season 3 was also widely considered to be less than wholly successful).

Here's a question: how much of Glen's creepiness is actually intended by Matthew Weiner?

I have to say, as nice as it was to get more Sally, I rarely have cared for Glen, and tonight was no exception. I find the actor (Matthew Weiner's son, no?) to be stiff and the dialogue written for him to be over-mannered much of the time. I felt quite down on that plot-line until the edit Keith mentions, which shot…

I'd be curious to see it again. My impression was that Don made the decision precisely in that beat where Roger suggested they'd have another meeting in a few weeks. However, ample track had been laid earlier - following the first meeting - that I could certainly buy the thought of Don orchestrating a meeting just…

Stolen Kisses
This one is a little unfair because the sequels actually straight out show you what happens to them, but Antoine Doinel and Christine at the end of Stolen Kisses are ripe for "no way" comments.

Crash Course and Much More Cleverer, I believe that is a pretty rosy way to look at Eternal Sunshine's conclusion. It's not unjustified, but I do think it's a fairly strong departure from what Charlie Kaufman was actually getting at (bear in mind he's probably the most thoroughgoing pessimist writing in Hollywood).

Though I think I see where you're coming from when you say "[interesting themes] mostly overshadowed by the need to hit the standard plot points," I have to disagree. These are both writers who give much more attention to ideas than most novelists practicing in the arena of popular fiction. They are quite deliberate…