The Shield reviews are vanishing!  (Or at least the links to them.)  Is this happening with any other shows?

Hmm.  "Nonsneering elitism" is a pretty good description of what the AV Club was (and, hopefully, is) all about.  Ratatouille argued it best:  not everyone is great, but greatness can come from anywhere.

Same here.  A good principle to keep in mind:  there is no such thing as a work of art that indicts its audience but doesn't indict its creator.

I think the "level of anger" (I feel it's more like dissent than anger; for me, it's just a chance to engage in some snark) is because the subject this week was  "good movies from often-maligned directors"; it's strange to get a D movie from a fairly popular director under that heading.  Now, if the subject was…

"@Scrawler2:disqus was an illuminated woman, I mean that most sincerely,"  @avclub-1d04064d540beb34e0cc414561bc6f35:disqus said.

Yeah, my first (and continuing) reaction to Watchmen was that it was Snyder's passion vs. his shallowness, and passion just barely lost.  I do admire him for trying (I'm very much with Patton Oswalt on this—unlike Gilliam, Aronofsky, Greengrass, and whoever else, the guy actually made the fucking movie), but there are…

Nathan:  How about The Wipe?
Keith: Shut up, Nathan.
Nathan:  Sprockets?
Keith: Why did we bring him along?
Genevieve:  The Big Rewind?
Keith:  Don't encourage him.

Oh there they are!

Actually, my problem with Sucker Punch is the opposite of what you described. I'd say it absolutely provided the titillation it seemed to offer (and some of the positive comments make it clear that it did) and it was a complete tease about questioning fetishization (in the sense of letting us know there are questions,…

Fair point. (And today's Watch This was by Sam Adams, to give demerit where it's due.) This is more a feeling of overall tone in the film section than anything else; with the loss of New Cult Canon, My World of Flops, and all but one DVD review a week, it feels like we're losing the kind of analysis and engagement…

This is, without question, the best review I've ever read of Sucker Punch. It needs to be the pull quote on all the DVD boxes from now on.

God, I want a fucking moratorium on using Mozart's Requiem; he used it in Watchmen, too, and in a Big Heavy Mournful Dramatic Scene.  (And I'm pretty sure Snyder thinks of it as "that cool scary music from Amadeus.")

"They can be a great people, Ignatiy.  They only lack the light to lead them from the snark.  Because of this above all, their capacity for critical discourse, I have sent them you, our last critic."

It's just over one month since the AV Club Diaspora of 2013, and now we have a Watch This on Sucker Punch and AA Dowd describing the final twist—exactly the one you'd guess from the trailer—in Now You See Me as "sav[ing] the biggest bombshell for last, and boy it is a doozy." (Go watch the trailer.  Go check out the…

Onion headline:  Local Sex Offender Undeterred by Postmodern Feminist Messages of Sucker Punch, Spring Breakers, Successfully Masturbates Anyway

(raises hand)

DON'T BUY! DON'T BUY! DON'T BUY!

"Dude." "Dude." "Dude." "Hat."

The Shostakovich 7th is one of the most awesomely ugly pieces of music ever, it's like a fucking steamroller.  It doesn't need to be slowed down or blown up any further.  And the 9th is such a wonderfully goofy little piece, you're right about that.

I've liked Bernstein's work as a conductor but have rarely been blown away by it.  (Those cases would be the bring-the-ownage Bach D-minor keyboard concerto with Glenn Gould and a lush, beautiful version of Carter's Concerto for Orchestra.)  And yeah, he did have a thing for too-slow tempos; I had a recording of the…