I'm a bit late here, but I'd just like to join to say thanks for the reviews as well, Christopher. I started commenting here on one of your reviews a couple years ago, and now that you're signing off, I think I might as well. If memory serves, the writer of this serial later admitted that she intended Ace's…

It's really the editing that ties the closing scene of Whiplash together. Much respect to Damien Chazelle for expressing almost all of the character drama through reaction shots rather than tacking on some sort of epilogue. And of course, now I think I should try one more time to get into jazz.

When Maddow covered the Charleston shooting, she blurred the shooter's face. I thought that was very tasteful. We need to stop making shootings about the shooter by asking why they did it and in effect giving them exactly what they want. Coverage should focus on the victims, but of course, that doesn't draw as many…

Sense8 gets even weirder as it goes. If you can handle the closing scene of episode 10, you should be able to handle whatever else it throws at you. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that you don't see that kind of thing on TV very often. Or ever.

Part of the reason I chose to work retail jobs instead of something related to my masters program (public admin) after I graduated is that I wanted to feel more grounded. Retail work doesn't pay well, and yeah, customers can be annoying, but at least now I have a more definite sense of what my work is accomplishing.…

I guess Lauryn Hill just got burned out on all the success and fame, which is not unusual. Dave Chappelle talked about that in an interview not too long ago. There are some folks like Jay-Z and Beyonce who seem to really enjoy being famous, and there are others who just can't take it. If I ever get famous (I won't),…

I often do that when I'm in a grumpy mood. Let's face it, you're never going to see most of them again, and of the ones you do, it'll mostly be a, "Hi, how are you? Oh wait, gotta run!" kind of thing. Very few relationships last one's whole life.

My paternal grandmother died this week. She was 87, and a fine human being. What sucks is that I won't be able to attend the funeral. I had a falling out with my parents back in February. I don't even have the money to fly out to Kentucky to pay my respects without their help, and there is obviously no way to go to…

Hi.

"All right, who's the wiseguy who activated the 'scared' expression?"

That could be the only A I've ever seen him give. It was well deserved, though.

And considering how good that movie was, I think I'll check this one out. Pixar's output lately really hasn't been doing it for me. I thought even Toy Story 3 felt a little rote, especially during the action scenes. It didn't need to be a trilogy. They could have stopped at 2.

I found out after seeing Django that Jamie Foxx wore a prosthetic for his nude scene. That makes me sad. I thought his nuts were a fine addition to the film.

One of my favorite things about Mad Max: Fury Road did not become apparent until the credits. By which I mean, the characters' names are amazing. Cheedo the Fragile? The People Eater? The Organic Mechanic? It reminds me of that great Pauline Kael quote: "Films are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great…

Christopher Lee considered The Wicker Man his finest film role. He did the part for no money and was such a history buff that when he first heard the title, he guessed that the film was about human sacrifice. There is only one mention in any historical text of the Gauls actually burning people in wicker men, so very…

Agreed. The show still had its moments in s3 (like the episode where she caught the rapist), but on the whole, it never found the balance between serialized and episodic storytelling that it had in the first season. In the second season, it went too big. In the third season, it went too small. Still, Kyle Gallner is…

If I were ranking Anderson's films, I'd put Grand Budapest in the middle. It's just Wes Anderson being Wes Anderson, which is fine, since I like Wes Anderson. But it was no Rushmore, although that could be just nostalgia talking.

I prefer a Tibetan sky burial, but cremation works, too.

Left my mp3 player on the train this week, which is a bummer. I can play music on my phone, but my mp3 player is smaller and can hold more. Plus, I like not being able to receive text messages or whatnot when I'm at the gym. It makes it easier to focus on the workout.

I find your comment/avatar synergy to be fucking distracting.