Thank you, author (it looked like Dowd at first), for giving Speed the respect it deserves. None of this "oh, that bus movie with Keanu is so crazy it's good," nonense: Speed is just full-stop great as an action movie.

And now I'm 7 months late (and on a different account) with this comment, but that's an awfully nice thing to say about someone's rambling outpouring of love for a show made what seems like a lifetime ago. Texas forever.

"Time to let him go." I really like this kicker, because it gets to the heart of why JB is such a whiff. It honestly feels like no one put much effort in here (which adds a little irony to all the movies talk about predictive algorithms), and the movie spends a long time trying to figure out a reason to exist.

Two cents on the switch: the important thing in my mind wasn't that he turned it off, but that he turned it back on. He breaks the rules, suffers seemingly no repercussions, and still puts the switch back the way he found it. Maybe fuzzy memories of season 1 aren't doing this interpretation any good, but I don't think…

A 69-year-old who made 25 albums has passed and it's being felt as though we lost an artist who was just getting started. That is remarkable and tragic. What a legacy.

Same boat, and I think it's a language issue. Not because it's in Mandarin, but because I lack the experience to interpret it in relation to the Wuxiu genre, Chinese history, or Hsiao-Hsien's other work. The visuals are what so many people come back to in talking about The Assassin because it's the only solid ground a…

16/20 and think most are great picks, especially the smartly directed, undervalued genre choices like Crimson Peak and Sicario (The Martian…not so much). I'd argue that Spotlight, The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Creed are getting short shrift, but it was a great year for sheer volume of discussion-worthy films, even…

The Visit is great, and anyone who says otherwise can have a face-to-face with Pop-Pop's sanitary briefs

Yes the sniper pass absolutely belongs here, no the grizzly bear attack doesn't because the CG animals in The Revenant are garbage. But that's just me. Other suggested entries:
The Duke of Burgundy: Cynthia improvising dirty talk in bed. Completely rewrites the relationship dynamic in gut-busting fashion
James White:…

Wonderful reflection on a sublime episode of television. Thanks for writing, Noel!

There's a particular scene (really more of a shot) early on that switches to a wider ratio. Very lovely to look at, but its greater purpose is a bit hard to parse, like the rest of the movie. Everybody's losing it over the visuals for a reason. I mean, they're amazing, but also the only sure thing most will be able to…

Secretly one of the best holiday episodes. No St. Patrick's Day is complete without a viewing of "Home vs. the Eighteenth Amendment."

#Pinastri

Man, I loved Dragon Age II. I imagine it may not have aged particularly well, but the main complaint people hold against it is my favorite thing about it. I loved that the action was limited to a relatively small geographic location. I'm so fucking over saving the whole goddamn world. The stakes felt so much more…

I really love how the show takes these very familiar family dysfunction plots and characters, and always seems to go a step beyond where they might traditionally end. Hard to cite examples without going deeper into the season, but by the end of the season, characters like Josh and Tammy really surprised me in terms of…

NOTY: Newswire of the Year

I seriously don't know what people see in Toilet Paper Roll. All you do is push a roll of toiler paper around for 45 minutes and read lots of text. You can barely call it a game.

Right? Complete bullshit, top to bottom. Much as I liked Reach and the general outlines for the characters, that's all they were, outlines. The "emotion" of Kat's death is entirely dependent on playing up gender shorthand. Had it been badass knifey guy who got killed randomly? That's making a statement about the…