I read the Philip Roth profile, and I too thought that that stripper/snatch simile was terrible. But, on reflection, I have to admit that that's the piece of magazine writing that I've thought the most about in the last year. I mean, that's really a bizarre line. It wouldn't have occurred to me to write that.

@avclub-0d4efaa2c9d1041eb9b8b5319eec8531:disqus , I agree totally. If QT is the most interesting dialogue writer of his generation, why should he work against his talents? Can't we ever just appreciate his talent for what it is?

@avclub-0f0d67e214f9fef69b278e3d08114da9:disqus , yes, it was meant as a negative criticism. Tarantino's probably the best Hollywood Writer alive; when people start to sneer at "wit" as a bad thing, I shudder to think how lifeless the Quality Filmmaking® of the future might become.

If I might guess: Tarantino's films are mostly about wit and stylistic play, whereas Drive is all about stylistic rigour w/o wit or playfulness.

Yeah, but I really like hearing Tarantino explain his reasons. Have you ever watched his Charlie Rose interviews? He's claimed that he's the best film critic he's ever met, and I must say that if he ever quits the film-making thing, I hope he begins to write reviews. That would be craaaaazy.

Maybe a better thing to say is that Anything Else's inclusion on QT's Best of the 2000s list might explain why he was pretty darn delighted to see Midnight in Paris….

I'm glad, but somehow I hope you haven't made your business cards yet.

Ditto on BS (get it? get it?). It's hard not to be obnoxious when I talk to people for whom the film was a deeply emotional expeeeeerience, but sometimes I try to remain calm.

Point taken. I haven't seen the film, so to me the "sex addiction" thing sounded a lot like "having sex w/ another person," which is the supply-side stoppage point that I referred to. (And, hey, you're right: it's not hard for a motivated person to go out to a strip club or hire a prostitute or whatever, but, speaking…

But, see, a Paul Giomatti sex addiction film would have that less interesting form of sex addiction—i.e., the sort that doesn't really involve other physical people. If Sideways taught us anything, it's that the schlubby guy's a born wingman.

Good point. But also (to maybe state the obvious): there's a qualitative difference between addictions to heroin and Vicodin and things like sex and (to a lesser extent) alcohol. There's a good cop sitting on all of our shoulders telling us that we shouldn't be taking heroin no matter what and only can take Vicodin…

See: We Need To Talk About Damien

I haven't seen Shame yet, but I agree with the author of the essay that it's sort of silly to mock a film for being “about the hell—the utter hell—of being a young, good-looking, well-employed, straight single man in New York.” Just because a protagonist's not part of a racial or sexual underclass, that shouldn't…

I never finished 2666, which makes me think that I can't comment intelligently on this subject. I can say, on the other hand, that I'm not gunning to start up on it again.

Good points, although in the case of The Staircase I'm not actually sure that the movie is making a case for the protagonist's innocence. I watched the film (it's long, for those of you who haven't seen it—like 6 hrs. long) and came to the conclusion that he was probably innocent, but my wife, watching alongside me,…

False. It's like…Paul Newman… Canada… snow… chess/"Quintet"… murder?… death… Paul Newman… romance?… snow… chess/"Quintet"… following… something… some…. Alright, I don't remember how it ends, either. He dies, maybe?

Daniel Craig is no queer.

True, and also: the sound design of Dragon Tattoo was miraculous. Fincher/Renzor are inventing something pretty amazing, the entire length of the film filled with a sort of ambient rage that did as much as the photography to maintain the film's momentum.

It does eventually have a very "lived in" feel. I wonder how the last seasons would watch if one hadn't seen the early seasons. I had that experience with The Wire—I started in S4—and it seemed like the most incredible thing I'd ever seen: all these characters with (supposedly) rich backstories that, as in life, I…

Believe it or not, I'd never watched one episode of The Sopranos at the beginning of 2011, and by the end I'd watched all of it. Literally ALL: during some weekends, the amount of Tony I was taking in was seeming to be downright unpleasurable. By the last season, I couldn't believe how unhappy I was to be watching,…