I'd be happy with Refn or Dominik taking it on, or maybe Fincher.  Alex Cox might work too, WALKER had a bit of McCarthy flavor to it.

FIGHT CLUB, although Ed Norton doesn't really do the wild hair or (much) crazy eyes - Bogart in TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE is  pretty disturbing if a bit overwrought by today's standards - similarly, Dwight Frye emerging from the ship's bowels in DRACULA is the only moment from that film that's actually scary.

I wanted to know about THE SILENT PARTNER too, but I can actually see being afraid to even ask Christopher Plummer about that one, on the off chance that his character might come bubbling back to the surface - really one of the scariest villains in filmdom.

Yeah, I should have been more specific, I was talking about Bergman more in terms of the style than the length - although come to think of it, even THE SEVENTH SEAL had more yuks in it than PRISONERS. I guess the opportunities for humor in a children-in-jeopardy story are pretty limited.

Yeah, I'm not sorry I saw it, but the more I think about it the more I see flaws, and the primary one is it went on for-fucking-ever.  In retrospect, the story wasn't deep enough to support the length and portentous style - it's almost like Bergman decided to direct an episode of LAW AND ORDER: SVU.

I read an interview with Donald Westlake and he said he actually turned the project down a couple of times because the characters were completely twisted and the story was too dark even for him.  Frears convinced him to take it on by pointing out that the story was (sort of) upbeat if seen from the point of view of…

Or BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.  That's another movie where he gets overshadowed by the other actors, but anchors the whole story.

I saw this when I was in a bar on Saturday and assumed I was having an acid flashback.  Guess I wasn't.  Unless I'm having another one now.

Yep, probably the most upsetting film I've watched since IRREVERSIBLE - even now I feel my gorge rising as I recall the, um, "brotherly love" scene.  

ANIMAL KINGDOM actually echoes AT CLOSE RANGE quite a bit in terms of the plot, and the depressing part is both were based on true-life cases.

I didn't hate it, I just hate the people who said they were crying with laughter when they watched it.  I didn't even crack a smile.  I guess it'll be useful for identifying the especially feeble-minded among my acquaintances.

I'll give it a shot…

BOWFINGER was pretty good.  And DREAMGIRLS though not to my taste was a success.

Who the fuck are these people?  AV Club seems to get new critics on a weekly basis, each crop more insufferable than the last.

@avclub-c1393a6cb4e64215bbe3b6804a948e4e:disqus I give Ice Cube the benefit of the doubt here by going with the theory that he's playing a character the same way Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese played virulently racist characters in TAXI DRIVER, he's not rapping as the "real" Ice Cube (not sure what his "real" name…

Just in that STRAW DOGS remake, which was better than I expected but still not quite good.

Don't use this interviewer either.  She sucked too.

You made the right decision.  Hollywood is a toilet.  If I'm there I'm at the Egyptian Theater, the Arclight/Dome, or Musso and Frank's.  It has little else to recommend it.

Walker.  But you're right, he would be better casting than Affleck.  He's not particularly smug-looking, but he's good-looking enough to make other guys hate him on sight.  A pretty good actor too, acquitted himself quite well in that RUNNING SCARED thing (may have that title wrong).  

I thought the lawyer was black, too, but I may be misremembering.  In any case, that's the only role I can see Tyler Perry playing.