The Others. Now here’s a movie that I think actually works better once you know the twists and, in its own way, becomes much more intriguing on a rewatch. Still think this is the movie Nicole Kidman should have won her Oscar for. Gothic, creepy, and in the end deeply moving.

I’m with you. The reunion asks us to have tender feelings that the characters themselves do not. The movie treats Al Swearengen as the next thing to St. fucking Francis when he spends most of the running-time downing hooch and contemplating atrocities. But I must admit that his final line filled me with warmth and…

The monsters were impressive and have made me interested in seeing the original, if only to see if the human aspect is handled better. My understanding being that the King doesn’t really appear much so there is more time to deal with the human drama.

My man.

Xenogears. Upscaled graphics, maybe some more animated cut scenes, a proper Disc 2, and the ability to speed up or skip text.

Einhander: I would settle for a simple remaster rather than a ground-up remake. I can remember playing a demo disc for this game and being completely captivated with the Bladerunner decor and the strategic weapon-swapping. But the game only becomes more complicated (and unforgiving) in the next stages. This one…

To this day, I’m mad that anyone thinks the movie Inception is good. It was built up so much at the time as “smart.” When I finally saw it, I was bewildered that anyone could call it that.

This game kept me hooked because it’s willing to be what it is without over-extending. The mechanics are a refinement rather than a bold reinvention. The story balances critique with down-the-center genre storytelling. And the pacing lets you savor the atmosphere a bit more than the previous entries, with their more…

See also how I found the Hannibal TV show wonderfully campy at times precisely because it was so over the top, and Bryan Fuller knew it was over the top, and still wanted it to be sincere and straight-faced.

And I think Sontag got that wrong because the gay men she referenced in her original piece KNEW when they were being too much. They could conjure up camp because they understood the point of it. It’s why John Waters could create those films with those characters.

That would solve a lot of problems, but (as you probably know) the Democrats have a serious problem with the senate’s electoral map. Enough low-population states are solidly red that we are probably looking at a right-wing majority in the chamber for the rest of our natural lives.

I love gel pens! I do find that my handwriting with a good pen is a blend of print and cursive because of that.

Fountain pens are a niche item, for sure, but they’re making a comeback thanks to brands focused on inexpensive, low-maintenance options. For around $30 you can get something that gives you virtually the same writing experience as the status symbol brands.

And unless the focus of writing goes from being able to communicate with others to just being able to communicate with our future selves, that makes print inherently more practical.

If people don’t learn to write cursive they won’t be able to read it either. So much would be lost.

I understand some people find cursive faster/easier, but if that were the universal experience cursive wouldn’t be this far into decline. It’s not as of this trend only started when laptops entered schools.

From Software’s games seem to encourage a strange mixture of masochism and elitism. And I’m not above it. Soloing Ornstein and Smough feels good in part because you’re always playing a failure montage inside your head, picturing the fight like the instant replay in Super Meat Boy.

This could be interesting. The focus on ultra-violence makes the project sound like a relic of the early aughts, when torture porn and “Asia Extreme” were in fashion. But Zahler has more going for him than that.

Former first-year composition teacher here. The surprising part of this story is not that rich people find ridiculous ways of getting their know-nothing children into fancy schools. It is that all the socially acceptable methods were apparently not enough: expensive tutors, ghost writers for important essays, legacy…

Lying on your back to shoot up through floorboards WAS pretty great, though. Same with the Rambo-style spiked branch traps you could set.