It is literally the only thing in those three films that equals Empire. It’s so weird to actually see great filmmaking in the middle of all that.

It’s also been done in broad daylight, so to speak, in an 80s Steve Martin vehicle Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid where he interacts with 40s movie stars; Zemeckis fooling around with it for Forest Gump was a big deal. And — in a way that totally belies its irony — Zelig.

However, this will be the iconic figure of it, like…

It’s this and then, on the diametrically opposed end, the Threepio one. I think because of the framing, which reminds one of Empire.

It’s unbelievable. It’s communicating that intimately on such a vast scale. It really is hopeful.

Goddammit, George Lucas, you’re making me cry.

What an excellent way to put it. The technique is just a technique, albeit a new one.

This movie’s the real deal. I saw it engulfed in a sea of teenagers who were unmoved by the cartoons Disney hawked during the previews, and they were fully absorbed by the situation the story describes. They recognize it.

Yep. But texture counts!

Really? For me any good movie is way better second time.

Just metadrama.

“Metadrama about metadrama” would be Brecht.

Yeah, I know. It’s an almost unbelievably misguided ad given the election result. I understand Mark Barden means well, and I’ve taken him to be an intelligent man, so I don’t get how the right could twist the charity into producing the ad.

I mean think about it. Nobody’s saying Sandy Hook wasn’t a horrible tragedy,…

The video instills paranoia and advocates minority reporting, by definition. ‘Over-noticing and over-reporting’ is more likely to cause tragedies.

It’s easier to buy a gun in this country than to vote. I’ve tried both, twice, this year. The voting thing never worked, but the gun buying thing sure did. (The gun was sincerely recommended as a remedy for serious, untreatable depression; the vote was for progressive leadership, somebody who gets that the state isn’t…

Quelle surprise, given overall trends. I’ll admit I long for the golden age of Victoria’s Secret, where the catalogs were troublingly sexy, and Yasmeen Ghauri (the daughter of a Pakistani imam) and Heather Stewart-Whyte (southeast Asian) gave beauty standards a subtle but firmly progressive kick under the table.

Isn’t it great to watch him grow into his role? I was scared for a while. Afraid of a Conan.

I’m relieved I’m not the only one to detect the whiff. Nancy Armstrong’s insightful “the modern individual was first and foremost a woman” is true (I’d highly recommend her Desire and Domestic Fiction), but I think that woman is a white woman. Speaking bluntly — which I think is necessary after the obscene disaster of…

Actually I think it’s those who fall on the ill-but-productive span of the spectrum.

— Francis said that, not Sofia. :)

Yeah, the film sucked. However, it’s beautifully shot — by one of our great and unheralded cinematographers, Lisa Rinzler, who additionally is so nice I was able to enjoy a great conversation with her when I happened to recognize her on the 1 from 116th down to Franklin. So she’s two rare things: a female DP and a…

What do you think he means by that? Manet is about as radical as you can possibly get. I’m not denying Rembrandt’s greatness - he might have been the master of oil, maybe it’s between him and Velázquez - but progressive is hardly the word one would use for him. Is it a typo - did he mean Monet? It seems like he meant…

That sounds about right - it’s never easy, but make sure you do the work you would like to be making, however you can - even a few minutes a day. Keep going, as Beckett said. Good luck!
Yrs - a fellow artist

I understand you’re trying to correct a misconception that bothers me as well, but most artists have not made money from their art and generally have lived in a lot of debt. Yes, Van Gogh “survived” - but compared to who? And to what conditions? He had a terrible life. The most important American artist, Pollock,…