As one of my friends once pointed out, if Roger Thornhill hadn't gone for drinks at the Plaza that day, he would have become Roger Sterling.

@CubicleD: I still get chills when I think of that line.

The book on which Eyes Wide Shut is based is called Traumnovelle, or "Dream Story," and there are a few hints in the dialogue that we're supposed to take certain scenes less than literally, e.g., "Maybe I think we should be grateful that we've managed to survive all of our adventures, whether they were real or only a…

My impression is that Bruckman is just toying with Mulder when he mentions autoerotic asphyxiation, possibly as a way of getting back at him after all those psychological tests. It's still one of my favorite moments in the episode.

I actually liked the first paragraph a lot. Clearly it was carefully worked over, but I thought it was very effective. (Especially compared to certain other AV Club writers who take an even longer time to get to the point. I'm looking at you, Rabin.)

It's too bad that the execution of "Tithonus" was lacking, because it could have been a classic episode. Geoffrey Lewis, who plays the photographer, is a really fine character actor, and would have been more than capable of going as deep as the writers wanted.

I've always thought that Jose Chung's take on Scully was close to Morgan's own: "For although Agent Diana Lesky is noble spirit and pure of heart, she remains, nevertheless, a federal employee…"

If there's any criticism of the genre here, it's implicit in the story itself, which illustrates how a classic episode can be built around the slenderest thread of plot, as long as the theme and characters are compelling. For a show that tended to drown in complications and expository dialogue, the narrative…

The cream pie, especially, is pure genius: it implies that Bruckman has been living with his powers for so long—and with so little benefit—that the question of what kind of pie Mulder steps in seems indistinguishable, in terms of interest, from the issue of whether or not Mulder's throat is cut.

And Scully's rejoinder is classic.

Still amazing
At this point, I've probably seen "Clyde Bruckman" twenty times, and I fully expect to see it twenty more times before I die (however it is that I go). In my latest viewing, it was the little touches that stood out the most: the way the fake gypsy fortuneteller's accept slips when the killer seizes her…

Genre conventions
"It's also secondary to what's really important."

@otto mann empire: The booth story is retold multiple times by producers on The Simpsons commentary tracks, so I'm pretty sure it's legit.

According to Matt Groening, there was originally supposed to be a running gag in which Herman offered a different explanation for his missing arm each time he appeared in an episode. The first time, it was from sticking his arm out the school bus window; the second time, he was going to say that he lost it in the ball…

See what I mean?

The real story here? The previous record-holder for earnings from a single movie is Mel Gibson, who cleared upwards of $300 million from The Passion of the Christ.

@Mr. Tanaka: I agree that it can be hard to overlook the terrible (or at least dated) scores of a lot of movies from the '40s, even the great ones. That's one reason, I think, that The Third Man holds up so well: its score sounds like nothing else from the same period, and as a result, the whole thing feels remarkably…

How about
Bond gets short-term memory loss, kills Felix Leiter because he thinks Felix murdered Vesper Lynd, then realizes that Moneypenny was manipulating him all along?

Why must he get my hopes up?!

And even Kubrick's greatest defenders often find themselves divided over individual movies. I love Eyes Wide Shut and have serious problems with A Clockwork Orange, not to mention Full Metal Jacket, which can easily lead to a fistfight on the Kubrick message boards. I can't think of another major director, except…