You can be, but given the AVC’s insistence on their progressivism I don’t think that’s the angle she’s coming from. And it makes me wonder how she’d, or anyone, would respond if I said “From the east coast to the west coast, urban America in 2019 is defined by its violence, gangs, and rampant drug use, where those who…

“From the Rust Belt to the Bible Belt, small-town America in 2019 is defined by its abandoned shopping centers, crumbling facades, and garish casinos, where those who weren’t able to move on to bigger and better things piss away what little hope they have left.”

That’s, um, not true. You could at least use a word like…

Nice review, Katie 

Well I shall check it out!

Funny studio comedy in the year 2019? Could this be true, oh beautiful unicorn?

Ahhhh yes.  How dare Diane Keaton make Annie Hall with a person who, 14 years later, would be accused of a heinous crime? 

I second the kudos for this response. But I still think it’s a stretch. Let’s assume that Sade is criticizing the enlightenment rather than just jacking off or being a provocateur (or that there’s at least a 50/50 ratio of trenchant criticism and sex). That makes him a right-wing figure, even accounting for the…

The latter is fair, though I don’t think true (and also doesn’t change the fact that you can GET a film and still find it totally horrible).   Furthermore, your Sade “has been seen a rebuke to the Enlightenment, and thus to liberalim, and thus a connection to fascism,” is such a stretch I’m surprised you can write…

While I understand what you’re saying, I think there’s a fallacious belief that to TRY to be deep is the same thing as to BE deep. Combining the Marquis de Sade, who has fuck-all to do with Italian fascism but a whole lot to do with cruel sex perversions, with some ham-handed attempt at social commentary doesn’t make…

Salo’s not really about that though either. It’s adapted from the Marquis de Sade. Who of course gave us the word sadism. Large chunks of the movie are just pointless, disgusting perversion (and I say that as someone who is very, very sex-positive). Honestly, the fact that it has pretensions towards thematic depth…

Salo is my go-to answer for the worst movie I’ve ever seen.  I don’t think it’s subversive, or deep, or anything positive.  It’s just a violently unpleasant movie.  Hearing people call it a great film makes me wonder if they think the Saw movies are masterpieces too 

Huh. *Looks it up* No way.  Have you seen it? 

Yeah he was way better before the All Hail Our Chinese Overlords phase of his career, wasn’t he? 

Interesting review, thanks.  Sounds like a movie that I’m glad exists but don’t particularly want to commit my time to 

C-, eh? :)

*Raise the Red Lantern and To Live director Zhang Yimou

Just because you have no dog in the fight doesn’t mean you can’t object to the tactics of the dog handlers 

Nah you lost me there. The word “racist” has been given all these specific meanings by people mainly just so they can explain why minorities aren’t capable of racism. But if you make a negative statement about a race, you are making a racist statement. Racism, at its core, is the belief that one race is superior or…

Agreed. The fact that people used to make negative judgments based on groups (e.g. all people of X race are Y) doesn’t mean we have to pretend Africans aren’t more likely to win marathons than South Americans, women aren’t more likely to not murdering you, cabbies aren’t often South Asian, etc. 

I respect your opinion.  But I also think that people who post on the AVC are not necessarily representative of the culture at large (for instance, there aren’t many Tyler Perry fans on here, right, but there obviously are in real life)