I guess its all relative but he's basically a household name at this point and yet all of his movies need qualifiers even for you except Devil's Backbone.

Yeah really.

Yeah, nothing wrong with liking those shows. They were fun. Irritating when they are considered some TV gospel by people who find The Wire "too slow".

Whedon can only excel when left alone.

Danny Boyle is the biggest risk for me. He can be great, but he's so gungho about going ALL out stylistically every time that it either works great or backfires big time. His streak in the last decade has been sort of.. soft. I haven't really disliked any of his movies but they've all felt kind of middle of the road,…

Eh - people go to movie theatres and bars and stuff for Game of Thrones finales. I think it did a good job of showing it as a phenomenon (and one that lasted) rather than like some moderately successful daytime timeslot filler for housewives or something.

Definitely the case. The end of the movie is pretty great but clearly has no idea where to go and so just tailspins until it randomly cuts to black.

Have to fundamentally disagree with the argument that the single take is invalid here — although Mike's review makes a pretty hilarious and compelling argument. I agree that it was pointless in Birdman.

I could never understand the love for Paranoid Park. It seemed so haphazardly made, sometimes bordering on amateurish. The acting is… beyond awful. It's like Van Sant thought the way to make teenagers authentic was simply to cast real teenagers—nevermind their inability to behave like teenagers in front of a camera or…

I can't decipher what you are trying to say in your second last paragraph but I like what you're saying about the book. However, I think this is a case where its beneficial to have both versions. The film has a different take and philosophy than the book and aside from some third act Spielbergisms, it's a really…

And when Clooney gets really paranoid in the park… I remember thinking that scene was great too.

Those always reek of cheap pathos, hell even propaganda. Like some cheesy PSA that has you look into the eyes of the person whose suffering you are subjected to and DARED to not feel for them. How could you be so callous? Can't you see these people are REAL?! It's a tool to quietly validate all the fictitious elements…

The story is ripe with award-baiting melodrama. It is about so many ahead-of-its-time progressive elements that cater so perfectly to todays society. It's easy to see why it was mined so ruthlessly for these things. In fact, I was extremely surprised about how tacked on the end of his life was. I expected that to be…

He's doing considerably better than Vince Vaughn.

Typical awards season melodrama stuff. Turns heroes into legends. Exaggerate what is actually a not very riveting story and is only super interesting when a narrator is describing the significance of what is happening over some old B&W photos.

Grizzly Bear. Migraine inducing.

Yeah but….. [whines]

this show (or at least the pilot) was written by the hack who wrote the Godzilla reboot. So that should explain it.

I saw it in 3D and my god, it was nauseating. Never felt sick watching a 3D movie before or since then. Might have also had to do with the plastic-wrapped, ugly-ass look of the whole thing though. The only good point was when this guy is pointing his spear and it looks like its pointing out of the screen at your face,…

AHEM It's HBO!