Caught this at Sundance, and it was maybe my second favorite of the festival—the first being The Farewell. And yeah. It gets real goopy at the end there, but when it’s on, it’s REALLY on. 

Bryce Walker is maybe the most consistently good thing about a series that is otherwise an abortion--”good,” meaning the show’s nuanced portrayal of white/hetero/affluent patriarchy and the entitlement that drives it. That said, I’m sure we’re a mere season away from the abortion story in this show.

The third season of The Handmaid’s Tale died as it lived: Swinging like hell for the fences, to middling degrees of success. And yeah, you can see the story that Miller et. al wanted to tell with this season. There’s a better story, where all of these big, blustery beats are threaded together with a more carefully…

I mean, if Zendaya’s afraid of pictures from her past, all I can tell her is, welcome to growing up, where embarrassment at dumb shit you used to do is at least 60% of your life for the next several years.

Not sure if it’s getting its own review, but Bon Iver’s new album is quite excellent. One of the best of the year, for sure.

I liked Six Feet Under in high school a lot, but it lost some luster on re-watch.  That said, its series finale remains among the single best episodes of television ever produced, and may be the finest series finale ever.

It’s bonkers that it took Kevin Spacey being ousted from Hollywood for most people to see how fucked up American Beauty is, because it’s all objectively awful.

Magnolia is a hot, hot, hot mess. And yes, there are things you could cut to make it stronger, but it’s that messiness that makes it so captivating. Artistic rawness like that is so undervalued. I’m glad that Magnolia swings for the fences. In its epic scope, its nonsensically Biblical machinations, its Aimee Mann…

Caught this one at Sundance, and yeah. Moore and Williams are phenomenal in it—albeit doing their respective Moore and Williams things. I’d also give a little more credit to the cinematography, which is, more often than not, thoughtful and lush. But that’s all the good I can say. The rest is clanging, overly talky,…

1999 is a legendary year, so it’s pretty impossible to take legitimate umbrage with this list, but if you all weren’t cowards, Princess Mononoke would at least be in the top five—especially since it’s Miyazaki’s best film. 

I wanted to love that “Cloudbusting” cue, and I get the spirit of it, but much like the beats that The Handmaid’s Tale has been trying to land this season, it was not earned. Then again, do any of us really deserve Kate Bush?

“The Son” is season four--another knockout run of episodes. But I agree. It’s one of those episodes of television that grows closer the older I get, and the more my parents change into people I don’t recognize as the people that raised me.

Yeah. That last shot is a nice parallel to the end of season three, and it’s that exact feeling. Whatever happens next, Tammy and Eric are gonna take it on like the perfect team they are.

I’m doing the same just thinking about it.

For me, it’s the pitch perfect closure of both Justified—a flawless run of episodes—and Friday Night Lights--the perfect emotional catharsis for an already reliably heartfelt show.

I know I’m being an asshole, and it’s not directed at anyone here or involved with this project, BUT COMPANIME IS RIGHT THERE!!!

This is the movie where Sandra Bullock won a Razzie one night, and then the next wins an Oscar for The Blind Side.

When people complain about Stranger Things being an easy nostalgia cash-in, I get it. For the most part, it’s too integral to the show’s identity not to be true. And you either have no interest in this, or you accept it and are in for the ride. Coming into the third season, I was feeling a bit of fatigue. For as large…

Tsk... Damn.

I mean, there’s like a 90% chance Ansari fumbles it, but who knows? Maybe he’ll come through with something mature and sincere.