Okay, I guess it just seemed pretty obvious to me what tone it was aiming for (I don't think there's anything covert or subversive about it), but I guess that's lost on some people. I think how we read the tone of something is linked to a TYPE of intelligence, but I'm not arguing that liking or disliking Scream Queens…

I'm pretty sure every semi-intelligent person knows this was meant to be over-the-top.

I don't think it's really that complicated. It's a comedy, just not an original or very bright one. "See, a pumpkin spice latte joke! See, we just mentioned every popular social media platform! We're so down with the millennials!"Shut the fuuckk uuppp, you soulless, condescending douches!

I think that's only half the equation of Hostel. It plays a lot into stereotypical American fears of other cultures, but is doing so knowingly. It was the most jokily xenophobic mainstream film since Temple of Doom.

I agree that he knows his horror movies, but anytime I've seen him interviewed he seems like a huckter trying to sell me snake oil.

Roth came out around the same time as Rob Zombie (who is not necessarily more talented, but is more interesting) and Alexandre Aja (who is not necessarily more interesting, but is a lot more talented). I feel he obviously has some fans. The Hostel movies were a respite from Saw, in that they were at least sort of…

I don't really get Roth's worldview either. He's pro-revenge (he admitted as much during Inglourious Basterds press) but anti-Outrage Culture, which seems inconsistent when both just fill the world with more hate. Or maybe he's less angry at the questionable tactics of so-called armchair liberals than change and…

Ryan Murphy is a phoney. He's a pop culture tourist, who doesn't have any of this stuff in his bones, but then does interviews claiming he invented "comedy-horror" with Scream Queens, never heard of Beetlejuice after ripping off its climax on American Horror Story, etc. The stale opportunism of Scream Queens might be…

I listen to pop music all the time. I know they have better music than Grande et al. But as long as we're stuck in an age that worships "cult of personality," I'm saying they're boring as hell, as celebrities.

I never bought Swift's album when someone told me it wasn't about Turner and Hooch.

Taylor Swift is like Beyonce. She's one of the most boring people in pop, but she can sing, and has looks and "business sense" (like that means anything) so all we can do is shrug.

I agree with that, and we can debate the relative success of the album, but much of the criticism directed at Scream was of the "what the hell makes this guy think he can do that?" variety. It was coming from a place where rock/metal is legitimate and pop is artificial, and a rock star crossing that boundary is…

One of the two, "Someone to Die For," was covered by another artist for the SPIDER-MAN 2 soundtrack. Cornell has since denied being the original writer, but if you pay attention to his other lyrics, that's hard to believe. If I'm wrong, I don't want to take away from any other songwriters by saying that, but still.

Yup. I know Badmotorfinger kicks a lot of ass. But the sudden quantum leap in songwriting quality that happened with Superunknown is pretty astonishing.

Scream was actually Cornell's most thematically coherent album since 1999's Euphoria Mourning, though there's a hint of an anti-suicide message running through the second Audioslave record. He's not singing out of character on it (so far as rock stars have unique personas), but just in a genre small-minded rock…

In terms of lyricism, "Say Hello 2 Heaven" was the first moment of, holy shit, this guy can write!

Thunderdome is pretty much the definition of a feminist action film. Aunty Entity and Savannah are both trying to rebuild society, while the men around them can only destroy it.

Most people want to belong to groups, place themselves on the "good side" and point fingers at transgression, so consensus is valued more than we'd like to admit. It's why the existence of a critic like Armond White makes certain people apoplectic. His existence shatters their world order.

Ewok hate is overblown. The Ewoks are badass commie motherfuckers who tried to EAT Han Solo! Everyone fears Darth Vader, but I don't remember him trying to eat anyone.

In the mainstream, prison rape is repeatedly used for comedy, even in stuff that would like to consider itself progressive like 22 Jump Street. Beyond that, it's there, but you need to go back a while. 16 Candles and Animal House are pretty cavalier about it in ways that we've wizened up toward, although the premise…