I was miserably hungover when I wrote that comment; I wish I could delete it. That said, Cassel's "all exposition, all the time" dialogue was awful and insulting. Black. White. Oh, look, she's wearing gray now as she practices. We get it, thanks.

"to symbolize"

[SPOILERS] See, the back tattoo wasn't real; it only existed in Natalie Portman's hallucinative mind's eye. The sexism and pretentiousness likewise weren't real, but were the products of Portman's raging hysteria. Please don't let the virginity-induced delusions of some catty Pollyanna cloud your opinion of Darren…

Yep. http://www.youtube.com/watc…

As for torrenting: Definitely for foreign movies that are slow to arrive in theaters, if at all. That's also great for movies that have an on-demand release along with a limited theatrical one. I remember dying to see World's Greatest Dad and downloading it long before it ever reached a theater near me. Same for…

I love the general experience of going to the movies too, and there's no better movie experience (to me) than seeing something I know nothing about and being surprised at how good it is. For example, I remember meeting my wife after work to see The Ring remake, which I hadn't read anything about (this was before…

Seriously, though, limited release fucking sucks in the Midwest, and sometimes the best bet is a torrent download if you can find it.

I completely agree, except maybe that a lot of the Palladium crowd is the spoiled kids of rich, sweater-wearing assholes, and a lot of the crowd at the Landmark in Bloomfield Hills is, of course, whiny old Jews.

I'm right with you, but the Birmingham 8 is in Birmingham, and all they're showing is shit like The Tourist, Burlesque, Morning Glory, etc. The Main Art Theatre is in Royal Oak, and it's the only place around showing Black Swan, but I walked out after 40 minutes on Friday night because the sound was fucked up. They…

Few aspects of electronic communication win my heart as much as good spelling and grammar. There have been instances when my affection for real-world friends has intensified after they've started blogs and I've discovered that, in addition to being generally cool people, they're skillful writers.

After watching Mysterious Skin, in particular the scene where ** SPOILER? ** a little boy puts his arm up to the elbow in the ass of his Little League coach and we are treated to a shot of the sweaty-backed coach writhing in pleasure, I pretty much lost all interest in sex for a couple weeks.

If del Toro's scorecard for this decade is anything like Spielberg's in the '80s …
I'll be a happy filmgoer, and the track record looks good so far.

Shout! Factory first won my love with their two exceptional You Bet Your Life box sets (which are now out of print, I believe, but still cheaply available from third-party sellers), and then the F&G yearbook, Undeclared, MST3K, The Middle Man, Greg the Bunny, Home Movies, the Sam & Max cartoon series, SCTV, Garry…

To me, Springsteen is the most obvious answer to this question. I have virtually no interest in listening to his albums — even live albums — but I'm certain that seeing him live (which I've yet to do) would be an incredible experience. If he wanted, he could just go through the motions and let his audiences provide…

What is real? What is real??

Personally, I'm not an Eggers hater. I've liked his books, and I even enjoyed "Away We Go," for the most part (including the opening scene, which was recently derided by the AV Club). That said, I don't care how nice a guy he is; if he were an uncharitable asshole but an interesting, incisive writer, I would value…

"Than when Jonze works with …" is how I should've phrased that.

I guess I find suburban angst grating in and of itself, and the literalness and pat war-zone motif of the video only serve to make it more trite in this case — but that's just me. I don't think Jonze attempted any sort of subtlety here, and I can understand why some would find it effective.

I think with "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation," Jonze and Charlie Kaufman brought out the best in one another, and with "Where the Wild Things Are," Eggers brought out the worst in Jonze. I hated Jonze's subsequent "I'm Here" short, and I find this video extremely grating.

A shady lane, everybody wants one.