I never understood the assertion that "there's nothing there" in OGF. The film is a reaction from a dude who freaked out that people thought the violence in DRIVE was "cool." The characters aren't "broad." They're dehumanized. They don't speak because they aren't fully-functioning human beings. This is what violence…

Probably because it's just a glorified fast-food hamburger stand. Chilis and Applebees have, like, actual entrees and stuff.

Eh. Tex-mex is kind of its own food genre, though. Not really fair to compare with authentic Mexican. It's like in New Mexico. if you're looking for real "old" Mexican food, you're screwed. You'd just as well be in Nebraska. But the New Mexican style of food has its own virtues, for sure.

Red Robin.

Haha. Holy shit. Didn't mean to ruin your day, buddy. It's truly humbling.

I like Tarantino films. Some of them A LOT. But you're basically correct.

Well, that is kind of like asking Americans about America's historical offenses and then wondering why they're still Americans.

Here's my problem with so much of the criticism of the prequels. Like, people just overstate and overstate and look for weird things to complain about.

The problem with any "dark and gritty" or "realistic" take on genres is that it has an overwhelming tendency to ignore the hopeful, beautiful parts of life. Yeah, lots of things about life are shitty and doomed and ugly and painful. But to make a show or a movie or a book that focuses only on the bad stuff is just as…

That's a fair point, and one I think gets a little more complicated the more we think about it. Ultimately, movies like Indiana Jones are "consequence-free." Only the bad guys die and they deserve it. But if you really start to think about it, what sort of messages are they sending? That we can punch and shoot all our…

It's more a question of tone than of pure, unbridled violence. Indiana Jones shoots a guy during what's supposed to be a swordfight and everybody laughs.

Eh. It would be nice to have a hero who, you know, exists in this universe and isn't endowed with superpowers. Old school action movies with (basically) normal people doing extraordinary things don't really exist anymore outside of netflix or DTV.

I can definitely see that. Good point.

That's one of the great jokes of the movie. He convinces himself that he's killing bad people, and at the end he realizes he was going to kill Driver's dad for testifying in a civil suit for good reasons. The moral ambiguity (and eventual reveal of complete moral repugnance) is totally part of what makes the movie so…

Do you know anything about Charles Bronson? For most of his life he has had no goals. He's severely mentally ill. If you read his books he can't give you any reason for any of his decisions except that he was "insane." You can even see him struggling for hundreds of pages to find an answer for himself and he can't do…

Check out his work over at Deadspin:

This is how quickly people forget about how tough the previous generation was on their generation. Trust me, I was already getting shit because of the trophies my little league team got. My uncles were already bitching about "everyone gets a trophy." Never mind that my team actually won the league.

I've never really understood this idea of a "passive" or "reactive" protagonist being a shortcoming. I think it's much more realistic. Life throws shit at you and you just try to stay afloat. Some people think it makes boring literature, but I feel like I relate to it.

Hyden's work for AVC was…tolerable. He became full-on smarmy, unfunny, annoying music writer cliche over at grantland. But people on the AVC love him. Mostly I read him and think, "Who really thinks about these things and why?"

I think he misses the whole point. Nas's whole point was that hip hop used to be more than a chorus. Now it's just a chorus. That's the problem. Nas has done records with "Southern" acts like Rick Ross and Ludicris. Ross isn't a great lyricist, but Nas obviously respects that his songs are more than a chorus.