I think it's the best of the last three, although it falls into the same scenario: given the iconography, genre, and sociopolitical material, you feel he could make a greater, smarter film if he just had someone or something to push and challange him a bit.

Maybe. Even accepting that thesis (which I don't… "Keep the Car Running" and "No Cars Go" are the only two songs that strike me less than Great… and they're both a lot of people's favorite) the problem is they both have too much other stuff as well.

WARM. BLACK. DINGUS.

The common consensus is that there's a great movie in all the footage, it's just too long, so Arnold editing further could potentially make a better film. But you always hope directors do post-premiere edits for the right reasons, and you'd hate to see her do it for the sake of a distributor.

I think Vice is a solid enactment of the novel. But that's what it is: an enactment.

I had the same experience finally seeing Eraserhead in a theater and realizing "Oh, it's a comedy"

He does vacuous deadpan well, something both Kubrick and Bogdanovich capture.

Neon Bible is clearly their best. Both Suburbs and Reflektor would be contenders if they weren't so overlong and bloated: they followed the LP format on the first two records and then just threw it out the window.

Well, I hope you're not a Kirk Douglas fan as well…

I'm pretty sure he was a serious trained actor before detouring into sketch tv, and only came to stand-up after.

I can get someone not liking the film, but I can't buy his reasoning: I'm nonplussed about the film mainly because it doesn't do anything Lost Highway didn't already do better. But hating both films?

Did you call bullshit?

Whether it was true, there's definitely enough gossip to suggest he was a real creep to women. There's also some gossip that suggests he recognizes it and is somewhat contrite about it.

I consider that a lesser novel, if I'm being honest. It certainly won't turn anyone off McCarthy, and it's a better intro than the formerly most-popular, but otherwise minor No Country for Old Men.

LA-centric, literary prententions wth get exhausting, and an unhealthy fascination with young, handsome rough trade? I'm surprised Franco hasn't adapted him!

You should, as it's a very different book from Horses' romanticism.

There's even a name for it: ero-guro… Or eros-grotesque. What's most surprising is how early it peaked: this was a popular genre in the 20s and 30s. It goes a long way to explain the weirdness of Japanese pop culture.

Murakami pretty much gained prominence as a trangressive "outlaw" novelist. His Almost Transparent Blue is considered Japan's answer to Naked Lunch.

I'd say, other than the quality of the works, the horror is the difference between that which is speculated and that which occurred. And the novel is uncomfortably closer to the first-hand accounts than you'd hope.

Of these? Probably Wasp Factory. Blood Meridian is monumental, but probably not the place to start (My recs: The Border Trilogy is you want the more elegaic, Western side of him. Child of God/Outer Dark if you want the grisly, Southern Gothic side).