I used to teach Jackson’s “The Beautiful Stranger.” Such a perfectly constructed story in which nothing much seems to happen in terms of plot but a vague, devastating sense of unease and then dread creeps over you. I always thought it would make a good fit for Todd Haynes.

Nothing could be more in the AV Club spirit than creating an account with a Parks and Rec inspired name to fact-check a Newswire.  Welcome and congratulations, Mr. Pikitis.  

Interviewer: You’re incredibly successful despite not fitting my narrow minded view of what a successful actor should look like. Why is that and how can I use this interview to display my ignorance?

On the one hand, this isn’t great. On the other hand, it gives the talented, charming Khan more to do than his fairly thankless roles in Jurassic World, Inferno, and Amazing Spider-man.

God, I miss Elegant Victorian Lady.  Now that was a quality gimmick account.  

I actually agree with your description but that’s part of what intrigues me about this trailer.

Tilda Swinton as a gender-swapped Famine.  I want this now.  

I’d never noticed it before but there is a certain resemblance, especially to Blood Simple-era McDormand.

While the movie around her isn’t great, Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday does the “kid trapped in an adult’s body” thing pretty much as perfectly as it can be done.  The way she plays around with her body language to communicate the teenager within is great.  

It’s certainly a more flattering haircut.  He doesn’t look quite as much like he just stumbled in from an awesome drum circle.  

Either actor would have been fine (though Ledger in particular is just so lived-in and good in that movie) but I’m so glad we got the Ang Lee version and not the Gus Van Sant version.  

I wish DiCaprio did a few more Catch Me If You Can-style roles, in which he gets to have some charisma and fun as well as having darker moments.  I admire him as an actor but it’s not often he seems to be having fun onscreen.  

I get the too many companions concern (there’s a reason they named a documentary about the Fifth Doctor’s companions “The Crowded TARDIS”), though the original trio of companions (Susan/Barbara/Ian) worked pretty well.

Still really hate the particular oversized trousers/coat combo here but I’ve gotten used to weirder Doctor outfits (hello, Colin Baker), so who knows.  

I’m still holding out for an Olivia Colman Doctor somewhere down the road.  

It was a weird era, in that all attempts to copy Scream pretty much failed miserably or disappeared immediately. Scream kick-started a bunch of movies but also served as a sort of dead end, since there’s only so many times you can do the self-aware slasher before it becomes really tiresome (and I say this as someone…

The publisher’s agreement I signed with them was riddled with copy editing problems.  Not a great sign.  

I will never use this fact for the rest of my life and yet I am somehow glad I now know it.

Rewatched John Carpenter’s The Thing, one of my favorite movies of all time. For some reason this inspired a mini-marathon of other 1982 horror movies: Paul Schrader’s abomination of a Cat People remake, Creepshow (which is about 3/5 of a fun movie and 2/5 not-very-good), Friday the 13th Part III (pretty unmemorable…

I enjoyed how Cult of Chucky was actually trying to pull the various crazy threads of the series together. Can’t say I’m that interested in a remake of the first, which is still a pretty solid movie.