I didn’t realize he’d been on Sons of Anarchy--a show I watched to the shaky/bad end. That certainly connects with the long line of noble machismo that seems to connect all his work.

I wonder the powers that be have ever actually discussed swerving that way for a lead character. The MCU is an incredibly conservative project—it doesn’t seem like they can imagine anything that isn’t on paper first, except for recognizing racist tropes and wanting to dodge them. Sometimes smartly: the Ten Rings (I…

MCU movies definitely have stupid-long battle scenes, but what constitutes torture or regular porn in them? And do they even need to lock in more money? They seem to know what they’re doing there already.

Somebody tell me what “classic” means in this context, because at least for some of these, the reputation was always that they were bad.

“but I personally did not expect so many people to clamor for a PS5 only to use it to play games they can play anywhere else.”

Sorry to hear that! Purely anecdotally, I got my invite yesterday (after signing up a month ago) and I was able to get one. Hopefully they shortlist you for the next round.

Eh, I think Alita used it purposely to decent effect. Naturalism is not necessary to tell all stories.

I think it’s Ben Affleck’s finest role.

I don’t watch it closely enough to know, so numbers during COVID could be read any which way, so am I wrong in my impression that Dune gets graded on the curve that genre fans want it to succeed and Eternals is filtered through MCU fatigue?

Well, he’s also talked about dealing with alcoholism and depression the past few years. Work’s a big part of a lot of people’s lives, not just for money.

I think people think doing things intentionally, thoughtfully and on purpose is a good thing, so this is not a criticism: I bet casting Erivo is a reaction/adaptation from the criticism about colorism in his casting for In the Heights, and if he’s truly paying attention, Crazy Rich Asians too.

Their production target definitely seems to be good enough rather than just good. I have a feeling that the impressions that they’re better at series is maybe boosted from them buying promising series that other places and smothering or hiding the bad ones in a flood of content.

I’ve been listening/watching music videos on You Tube lately, and when I glance at comments there’s always at least one take that’s complicating the storytelling (if there’s a story) of a video with it’s “it’s a dream” or a metaphor or what have you no matter what it was. I like figuring things out too, but sometimes…

I haven’t seen Eternals yet, and my hopes as a big fan of The Rider (even more than Nomadland personally), have been metered from the start. Warner Brothers on one hand has no real house style because they do let their directors loose (Snyderverse) and when they don’t (Green Lantern). The Nolan movies are the biggest…

I have a feeling Vin Diesel would try it out.

Lol—I wish Rowling mattered as much as this discussion seems to imply, but I don’t think she does. We’re too inside the peak of Harry Potter fandom and despite Hughes being slightly older, there’s still too much time left for legacy to be considered effectively. That temperature of fandom was never going to be…

People seem to like The Old Guard (though I too was mostly bored). I will say that The Old Guard didn’t look that expensive compared to the ones you listed—it feels more like a B movie, so a relative success. The others you mention don’t feel like they made much of a splash, but who knows.

It sounds like it was Benioff telling him to go nude.

I’m not a Tarantino fan, so maybe y’all know better, but I’m surprised that he’s doing this? I know he prefers film and so on--like many filmmakers (ha, it’s still in the name!)--but I didn’t think he’d be into a non-populist format like this? I don’t think of him as someone who’d want to actively restrict access to…

Thanks for answering what was absolutely a giant octopus-like question. What you said makes a lot of sense. I didn’t know that the railways may own those malls—I imagine that makes a big difference. They might set rents for occupancy rather than maximizing for income for a start. Main business is transit and that’s…