I think they could certainly have written that character to make him a little more dimensional in his reaction to that situation… but that would involve him not exactly reacting the way he does. His complete lack of interest in her as a person, even nominally, kinda seals it for me. And as much as he stands out for…

How lucky attractive people must be, to never feel embarrassment or self-loathing, even as teenagers.

Don't be so sure that your own neuroses aren't at play here, at least a little bit.

It's not a total burn and I'll be interested in your thoughts. As a critic, I see a lot of movies where my feeling is "sure, this might be an OK thing to watch if it were free."

Farrell is my go-to example for loss of musicality! That lowness is fine (and has worked well in something like, say, Minority Report), but the flat American affect generally isn't as much fun to listen to as his Irish brogue. Maybe that's just because I associate that brogue with Martin McDonagh dialogue, and his…

Good line in a good song. So "I don't know why this is so upsetting" right back at you. I think it's kind of hilarious to describe anything on that record as "bombastic" OR overproduced. Shinier, maybe? But songs like "Girls' Room" and "Headache" and "Perfect World" don't sound like crazy maximalism to me! And…

And yet: I'm sure if you asked her now, hey, is whitechocolatespaceegg (a.) not very good because (b.) you stopped using drugs and had a kid (a kid who I'm pretty sure was born after that album was made, not before), I don't know that the answer would be the same. So "ask the artist, she agrees too" doesn't really…

I don't know that it made it clear they were best friends, though. You can know all of the same people from high school and not hate each other and even be friends without being besties. From Clerks alone, I more got the sense that they hang out with each other because of proximity and shared history, and basically…

As an official Star Wars prequel apologist and non-fan of Lord of the Rings, I did and do appreciate the hell out of Randall's Rings-bashing.

I imagine my wife agrees. She loved that show and we have the DVDs… I intended to give it a passing mention (while trying to keep the piece to movies and not TV as much as possible) but forgot to work it in.

I haven't seen Jersey Girl since it came out, but not because I really hate it or anything… I just didn't think it worked as well as it could have and had little desire to revisit it (actually, before I rewatched Clerks II for this piece, I hadn't seen any of his post-2001 movies a second time, though I have seen all…

Three is all I need! That would be an interesting one, too, because (though I haven't seen all of Man of the Year and could be wrong about this), two of the three are kind of bad, right?

I also love Winslet's performance in that one and wish she'd won for that movie, rather than The Reader (though Road, as you allude, isn't perfect).

I missed it last year. I think it's on Amazon Prime at the moment, though, so I should really catch up. As much as I enjoy his more subtle performances, I'm a big fan of grifting/insane Shannon.

It's worth more than you might think. ;)

Excellent guess, and I may do that one at some point, but not this time.

I wonder if I felt cool toward it also because it doesn't feel like there's a lot of change over the course of the movie. Shannon's character starts out protective of his son, and his son starts out gifted and in need of protection, and that's pretty much the situation right up until the end. I guess there's a sense…

I just don't know that there's enough depth in Breaking Bad — or a lot of very good shows! — to make me feel like I need to really re-commit to however many hours, 50 or whatever it is minus ads. But I think Mad Men probably qualifies.

That's entirely fair.

Yeah, with the '90s movies, it seemed like the radio versions (Peabo Bryson, etc.) got play on the radio as intended.