I'll reply to what you said in your other comment later when I have more time, but I am curious: to you, who are the up-and-comers that excite you?

Well I'm very tired so cracking wise is my first response, but I did reply to you properly, though I can't imagine it's going to do much for you.

Look, from what you've written, I think it's a pretty simple dichotomy between those who hold your perspective and those who don't. And essentially, it's a matter of the angle from which you approach his work. For me, I think there's a sort of post-ironic air that works, that he's at once all-in on his own…

Oh man, is this still a thing people think?

You definitely sound nothing like an Alex Ross Perry character, good for you.

Area Straight Internet Commenters Fail To Think Outside Of Themselves

You're right that your opinion doesn't really matter, and I mean that in as polite a way as possible. It's queer people who get to decide who is an icon for us, so it's not really your place to say that it's "crazy" or to dismissively 'salute' us after a few paragraphs of arguing against the idea.

Oh please. If anything, straight people have co-opted most things from us.

Well, I haven't seen Mojave, but it helps that ARP's films are excellent.

Why are those two brother characters kissing?

Anecdote for anecdote: the queer women sitting next to me when I saw it gesticulated wildly at the screen in disbelief throughout the sex scenes and on more than one occasion whispered, "What the fuck?!"

Also the fact that the studio system loved to force popular actors into roles they didn't necessarily fit, here trying to squeeze a good ol' Southern boy who's mainly done Westerns into a stuffy period piece.

I think they're being very deliberate about not including too much. I keep thinking about how much more to this film there must be because we get a sense of maybe, what, 8-10 scenes/locations?

Well, that's part of the joke.

I had to GIF the best part: https://49.media.tumblr.com…

Ugh, that sounds terrible. Sounds like the dude is in bad need of an adult circumcision, too.

It's actually a lot of fun, and the closing shot/needle drop is tremendous.

I think you're confusing "clunky exposition" for the fact that Kate's character legitimately doesn't know about Katya and therefore has to actually like, talk about it with her husband. Did you know that people exposit in real life? I know shitty internet criticism has taught people that exposition is enemy #1 of good…

That's a really dull and uninteresting thing to find objectionable about criticism. The insights are what you read for, not an ability to reel off factual details. It is, after all, interpretive.

Brandon's Enlightened and Looking coverage are among the very best writing on this site. But I've noticed that not everyone likes his style, which is not nearly as rigid and box-ticking as other critics' can be.