Actually, that’s sort of how it works in real life. People are randomly queer and non-white ‘out of nowhere’ all around you. They don’t have an interesting backstory about their queerness or skin color for your entertainment/justification.

The stories are out there that you can meet Cruise at a party/event for 30 seconds and 5 years later, he’ll remember your name and some relevant fact.

He’s one of those famous people that really illustrates how people can’t just be put into neat little boxes. On the one hand, he’s deep into a scam cult that does extremely unethical stuff. Sounds like he’d be a clear-cut bad guy, but on the other hand I’ve never heard anything negative about his professional behavior…

I think the concern is less that Tom doesn’t stop talking about it and more that he sells you on it in under an hour. Like “Signed over the deed to your house to the Church, packing a bag for a month on the Sea Org until you go Clear” sold.

I mean, everybody does this. You don’t pick fights at Thanksgiving with that one uncle who took you to cool places when you were 8, but now watches Newsmax because FOX “got to woke.”

Why would anyone want to ask Tom Cruise about Scientology? It’s not like he’s going to tell you anything you don’t know, and there’s always the chance that he’ll start talking and won’t stop. It’s like walking up to a used car salesman and telling them that you have $15,000 saved up and don’t know what to spend it on.

He’s there is to freak out when Ethan does something dangerous, and not being very tall. There’s no in-universe reason for him being there, it’s entirely about making Cruise look better.

“And you asked for European Cities for $1000, and that’s... well, we ran out of clues due to the strike, so why don’t you, uh, touch the tip of your nose with your tongue, or something like that...”

“I’ll take ‘Scabs’ for $200, Ken.”

“...and later proved it.”

“You’re free to be sympathetic, but not too sympathetic—toss in the occasional random rant about how the mean writers hurt Jenna Ortega’s feelings or something.”

Making the staff write relentlessly about the writers’ strike is probably the most ironic and lousy thing the unionbusting bosses at the AVClub have done.

The male fantasy of the ‘wise little virgin/predator’. This is so incredibly disgusting but it’s also a staple of certain hetreosexual male thinking. It’s just awwful to see it in print. I didn’t see this movie, but I’ve seen enough Woody Allen shit, so... 

Both unions are attempting to secure residuals, get fair wages, and keep AI out of the creative process. Is that really so different?

“But I don’t want to say anything that would invalidate anyone’s experience.”
Don’t silence yourself. And so what if it launched your career? You don’t have to honor it for anything more than it was - a job.

It is a trope isn’t it? Even if it doesn’t take on sexual dimensions, there is a comfort fantasy for adults couched in a kids-say-the-darnedest-things sort of humor. It’s also a short-cut to portraying kids as complete, complex human beings who just happen to be at a different developmental place.  But, you know, that…

I generally don’t like that mature-beyond-her-years thing movies do a lot. The Nice Guys is one of the kinda recent examples I can think of.  It plays with this idea that an “old soul” is someone you can talk to at your level, which really means the older man feels okay (and the audience is made to feel okay about)…

Was there not a similar dynamic in Beautiful Girls, but in a light-hearted, small town comedy sort of way? I believe Portman’s character refers to herself as an “old soul” so that’s, you know, not great.  Too bad she seems to have served as an outlet for a certain stripe of creepy adult fantasy at that point in her…

Ugh, that fucking stage direction is just...ugh. I wonder at what point actually shooting it that way got nixed. Like did Portman actually see *that* or was it at least updated to the shot scene where he rejects her (which is ‘better’, but that’s the lowest of low bars) before she saw it. 

Yeah, I remember the theatrical experience being a little sketchy, but nothing we couldn’t smother with a pillow to get to our appreciation of the bitchin’ action. I do not think we could smother it if we had the scene with Portman doing a Marilyn Monroe.