Awesome writeup, Jesse Hassenger. Covers a lot of ground in articulating what makes these three movies so enjoyable. Frances Ha is my favorite film of this decade. The fact that it's such a divisive film only makes me love it more.

Yeah, I guess if it wasn't for the fact that literally every Hollywood movie from the time was cast the exact same way, it'd seem more troublesome. And if anything, the lack of women in Lawrence only serves to highlight the queer subtext of the characterization. It's a progressive movie in some very unusual ways.

I finally succeeded in rewatching Lawrence Of Arabia this week; still never seen it in theaters. Absolutely a cinematic bucket list item.

Despite their flaws, the X-Men films (I'm just referring to the Singer films, mostly) have a distinct identity and approach that I enjoy more than the usual house styles of Marvel or DC. The Marvel Studios films are pretty awesome, but they have their own unique flaws. Marvel is definitely better at fanservice though.…

Queen Of Earth felt like it was building up to some big tragedy or horrific act of violence, SO much foreboding and false foreshadowing and then just… nothing. I still think I would've liked it a lot better if the dialogue had been better-written. Or if it just amounted to something more than "horrible people being…

I am so sorry, and I feel like an insensitive prick for even bringing it up. Please accept my sincerest condolences.

Jesus Christ. Knowing his commenting history, I can only hope against all hope that it wasn't the worst possible thing imaginable. RIP

Michaelis goes a little too far connecting material from Schulz's life with the strip; some of it works and some just feels like reaching. And apparently Schulz's family totally disowns the way he is portrayed throughout the book as a cold/unavailable father and family man. But Schulz And Peanuts is still a very good…

X-Men: Is Ivan Ooze Gonna Have To Choke A Bitch

Just, MTV reality shows in general. My wife cannot turn away from Teen Mom or My Super Sweet 16 or that stupid one where parents watch their kids go out on dates. Plus she has to watch every Gordon Ramsay show.

One Hundred Bullets is going to be a series.

This comes up from time to time on r/SquaredCircle (usually Max Landis is brought up along with it, which, no): a feature-length depiction of the complete story of Undertaker, Kane and Paul Bearer as told in WWE kayfabe. Picture a cross between the Western, horror, wrestling and biker gang exploitation genres.

Eclipse is the first book where the mythology of Meyer's universe feels like it actually might pay off, with an elegantly simple, classic conflict: the Cullens and the Blacks call off their centuries-old blood feud and come to a temporary, uneasy truce in order to team up and fight off the evil forces of the Volturi.…

Shirley Manson shepherded my prepubescent ass towards manhood with the quickness back in the 90s. I'll always have a soft spot for Garbage because of that. I listened to "Empty" and didn't like it though. This band used to excel at writing hooks, and they lost that ability somewhere after the 2nd album.

New Moon is the worst of the Twlight books by far. Eclipse is better than the others, while never rising above mediocre, and Breaking Dawn has a couple of parts that are not completely awful.

Back when I first read The Hunger Games, I thought it would've worked better as a 3-season (of 13 episodes each) prestige cable drama series than whatever the hell the movies were.

I never found it funny enough to laugh at, nor poignant enough to be moving, nor outrageous enough to be truly shocking. And nobody in the cast is dynamic of charismatic to enjoy for their performances (other than Adam Driver). I liked Zosia Mamet's character, though. Hell, maybe I should give the show another chance.…

Didn't Lena Dunham catch a fuckload of flack for writing about molesting her younger sister in her book?

It's a unique show, and I can see how the people who got into it would be REALLY into it — there's nothing else out there quite like it.

"You respect JESUS, but not us??"- still one of Philip's most awesome outbursts.