Hold on here for a second. She’s 15?

I dunno. I guess times change, but when I was 15, I was a mini-adult in tenth grade. I’d not only lost my virginity but had been full-on in love — and broken up. I’d go on dates where we’d go see adult (rated R: Blue Velvet, Platoon, Broadcast News, Hannah and her Sisters, The Fly)…

God I can’t.

I love free speech, and I’m free to hate George Carlin.

For me, he’s always been in the Thomas Pynchon / Terry Gilliam / Frank Zappa garbage bin of people whom I guess I can’t argue with but just can’t stand.

— Meaning he’s super-rightwing. Not sure if that was clear.

Apparently Malkovich is pretty much playing himself. A guy I know who knows him has always said “you simply would not believe the stuff that comes out of that guy’s mouth.”

Lordy, Black Klansman is one of the most puerile and dramatically inert films I’ve ever seen. Lee’s exploitative use of Belafonte was downright pornographic. No wonder he forced his crew to wear coat and tie when Belafonte was on set (and frankly it says something if one has to ask that when Belafonte is on set). First…

But don’t you people think this speaks rather loudly about the shift in values from 1977 to 2018? In terms of circumstances, Luke came from “nothing” and was born “nowhere.” He embarks on the hero’s journey and achieves its cumulative “freedom to live” via his belief system, personal conviction, and faith. Luke is…

What you’re describing could be an amazing movie. It is not Last Jedi, which will stand as the towering monument to the instagram/Trump era. Any of the ideas you note would make great, dramatic scenes, but Last Jedi can’t do scenes. It can only do “posts.”

And I’ve just realized that the debate around the film never…

When Bob notices he’s on SNL again, he’s already done.

Aren’t you afraid spices will mask that delicious water aroma?

I still can’t believe she did this. Obama remarked that the thickness of the bubble surprised even him. I guess the optics really become — to quote Joyce — an ineluctable modality. But in her case it’s an unelectable mentality :(

I can’t say he was a hero of mine. But if it turns out that the public intellectual who had the disarming cajones to actually respond to three glaringly questionable and dire accusations — instead of immediately shrinking into passively validating silence — was the one to found a critical resistance to ideological…

At least we’re appreciating the gravity of the situation?

Dunno. Not without physical evidence.

Yeah I think I’m just grasping right now how stupid they are. Any attention makes them feel appreciated. Meanwhile, I value redeemable assets. What a profound cultural gap.

Truly one of the most shocking and hilarious reveals I’ve ever encountered in literature.  

Didn’t it also have Josh Hartnett in it?

What creeps me out is the CGI Africa itself. At least Black Panther was vaguely self-aware escapism that got its historical just deserts in Infinity War. (New York wins, Africa loses — it’s not that different a universe.)  But this is herky-jerky forced modernisation that any despot would love.

That trailer makes me sad. It shows how the film could have been good. No JJB and a good child actor would have been halfway there, more than halfway.

I was dating a brilliant Gujarati art historian from Harvard who was, next to me, the biggest Star Wars fan in the world, and when the Annie Leibovitz VF editorial came…

Hmm — what’s the shot with the stormtroopers doing the step in sync? I guess it’s the way this weird thing is cut, b/c I certainly don’t remember that. It is in the finished film, correct?

I don’t even need a punchline. I’d be fine with a Big Audio Dynamite sample.