I feel like Reznor always walked a really fine line. And to his credit, he never really deviated from it. The angsty shock value thing is there, but it never becomes the only thing or even the most important thing. It's just a convenient way to dismiss the music, if you're already so inclined.

@JudgeReinhold:disqus

@JudgeReinhold:disqus

Or Maryland. Didn't apply to the border states.

Or Maryland. Didn't apply to the border states.

It's funny you mention this, because I just finished (literally, yesterday) rereading that damn book for the first time since college. And I loved it, until I started looking up critical interpretations of it. It was obvious to me that Kinbote is a madman—especially because he pretty much admits as much in the 1000th…

@bakana42:disqus

It seems the path to modest Hollywood stardom these days begins in British sitcoms. See also: Martin Freeman.

It gets mocked because it's earnest to a fault. Come to think of it, that's the reason most comic strips get mocked. The lack of irony makes them easy targets.

The PTC started life as a branch of the Media Research Center, which is dedicated to exposing the dangerous liberal bias of the mainstream media, or some such bullshit, and they still share an office in Old Town Alexandria. The founder of both organizations is a right-wing activist and lobbyist (and the nephew of…

Yes, but stupid people don't always have stupid kids. Sometimes they grow up and leave behind their shitty town and Jesus Christ and all the fat hillbilly-spawn who tortured them as children; and they immerse themselves in the depravities of modern American life, like master's degrees and studio apartments and Barack…

One, anger. Ira was clearly pissed off and wanted to hang Daisey in public.

The "lacks emotion" initial response is the one I find the most annoying, because it's the most subjective, vague and uninformative attack anyone can level at a work of art—essentially the critic throwing up his hands and saying, "I don't know. I just don't like it." But so many works that we now consider great and…

A better way of saying it, I think (as opposed to "playing up its silliness"), is that The Game commits wholeheartedly to its premise. In a strange way, it reminds me of JFK, another movie with a ridiculously elaborate plot that stretches belief on multiple occasions, but ultimately works because it has a genuine…

I think you're supposed to accept, at that point, that they're capable of anything. That's the whole point. I mean, after all the other shit that CRS has orchestrated throughout the film, predicting which side of the roof he jumps off doesn't seem so difficult. e.g. Choose a roof location that is blocked on most…

I loved it the first time when it first came out and decided to watch it again about a year ago. It held up fine. I'm watching it with a different eye, of course—it doesn't surprise me, but it's still fun to see how everything is put together and plotted to the nth degree.

A few people walked out of Tinker, Tailor when I went to see it. So, to answer your question, I don't know what the fuck is wrong with people. I can sympathize with walking out of The Master of Disguise, but Tinker, Tailor? So it's not the Bourne Identity. Buy yourself a coffee at the consession stand and try a little…

I was too young for Born in the U.S.A., so I first became aware of him with Streets of Philadelphia, which is still a great song.

Whether it went up last week or last year, it was clearly trying to emphasize the unpredictability and inconstiency of this process. Boardwalk Empire was only the most egregious example of HBO sitting on a DVD release for a crazy long period of time; and your average consumer could be forgiven, in mid-September, for…

Yes. Todd makes it sound like you only have to pony up $15 / month and then you've got HBO, but that's disingenuous. If you're starting from scratch (or a $45 / month Time Warner Internet-only subscription), you've got to subscribe to a whole raft of other crap just to get HBO. I also find it galling when people throw…