He's had quite a few W/Os, though (Bakhtiari, Lowery, Lau, Zlotowski, Coogler), so that's keeping the grade level relatively high.

I have a hard time picking a favorite, but I typically cycle through Barton Fink, Fargo, and No Country.

@avclub-5dedb42b34e50082065a783265ce28a8:disqus : Heh.  I know I'm sounding negative, but D'Angelo's my favorite critic on this site.  He has a weakness for being categorical sometimes (see his comments on drama and therapy yesterday, for a recent example), but by and large I think he's one of the sharpest and most…

Agreed.  He actually considers it a failed attempt at the Coens imitating Raimi, so chew on that for a few minutes.

Why so late on the chronology?  Aren't Chance's cadences much closer to what Andre3K was doing years before?  There are moments on this mixtape that sounds like Andre sing/rapping over Kanye beats, and it's glorious.

This is ridiculously good.  Chance's voice reminds me of a looney toons character, but he has great control of it for effect, and the music is just crazy good.  I've had "Chain Smoker" and "Cocoa Butter Kisses" on loop, but there's really nothing skippable on the tape.  And that high pitched croon on the chorus of…

So much love, especially for the wedding episode.  If this is it, they went out on a very enjoyable, fun note.

I won't quibble about the performances, but the camerawork is really excellent.  Jim Emerson broke down four sequences point-by-point, and it's worth watching (that hospital scene in particular).  It's all very carefully, and very deliberately choreographed.

Also:  "I resent your making me single in this hypothetical.  You could at least have given me the dignity of having been widowed."

That Jane keeps immediately-accessible pulldown posters of each of her friends was my favorite detail of the night.

Favorite moment: when Mathu Anderson asks Roxxxy what character she's playing on the witness stand, and Roxxxy says something like "What?  I'm playing Roxxxy Andrews", and Anderson gives a dismissive shrug that's pure acid. Truly, not a single fuck was given.

Favorite: Liz's Katharine Hepburn impression:

I'll back you on this: I think it was a solid, enjoyable movie with a killer performance from Denzel.  Plus it treats a lot of its most effective scenes with deliberate patience (something Fuqua seems to have forgotten), like Hawke's slow realization of what's happening at that poker game.

Way to show your hipness level, @avclub-22eda830d1051274a2581d6466c06e6c:disqus . Franco's look and accent were modeled pretty heavily on Florida rapper (sic) Dangeruss.

Best thing about the movie is the opening credits.  There's some clever stuff in here, but you could trim about a half hour's worth of 3-D rollercoasters that are more exhausting than fun (first a tornado! then he falls from the sky! then he lands in rapids! and then there are giant waterfalls! ad nauseum.)  …

Yeah, this is exactly the comment I was coming down here to make.

As long as he doesn't sleep with any of the women at Downton Abbey, he should be fine.

[George Clooney] took on his share of weird guest spots, popping up on everything fromRoseanne to The Golden Girls to Murder, She Wrote

I understand the reaction, but… her kids were just taken away from her by the state and presumably put into foster care, or placed with relatives.  She may have thought she'd never see her kids again.  It's hard not to bottom out in a situation like that.

I laughed out loud at the critics' blurbs, though.  "Like a less-violent Passion of the Christ" - A.O.Scott.   Totally.