I appreciate your respectful reply but I can't say I understand your thinking. I thought the reason that people came to sites like this was they wanted to participate in a forum to articulate and share their own critical thinking about cultural products. I don't particularly like 'Leftovers' so far, but I watch it…

I think the most obvious problem plaguing this show is that the guiding principles of the GR are so incoherent/mysterious. This is not to say I don't empathize with some of them; I definitely understand the desire to refuse to return to the status quo, to reject assimilating suffering into the banal socialized…

So it is. My bad. But I'm white, so let's just let me off with time served, 'kay?

Um, okay then maybe all the other caucasian gays who have been harassed, beaten, and murdered for being gay?

Exactly. Last week, I got a bit rude with Sonia because she clearly wasn't even paying attention to the show she was reviewing. This week, she not only trotted out her extremely offensively narrow definition of 'hate-crime', but also managed to completely misconstrue one storytelling trope ('magic negro') as well as…

I don't understand your complaint. Wouldn't it be better to have both an entertaining, vital commentariat and a perceptive, astute critic on the same site?

Only works against cops, though

If criticizing a critic is 'bashing', then what are you saying about the job of the critic? Lazy/misguided/ill-informed criticism is just as fair game as the work that it criticizes. Sonia is 'The Following' of critics, as far as I'm concerned.

The Leftovers may not be a good show, but Sonia is definitely not a good reviewer. I certainly prefer a reviewer who can and will interrogate the unspoken and even unintentional subtexts found in popular culture, and question the 'whiteness' and 'straightness' of narrative tropes that so often go unquestioned. But…

I loved The Specials, It was a much, much much better film than Mystery Men.

I like the way you think, Poopenmeyer. You want to direct 'Dazzler'?

He got the gig because I'm a Marvel executive. James Gunn walked into my office and said, 'Who wants to give me $170 million to re-make Ice Pirates, but with a gun-toting space raccoon this time?'

'This young man said nice things about us on the internet. Let's let him direct our next picture!'

Yeah, I would argue that the film's real subject— the real mole in the Circus— is the emotional fragility that lies at the core of the men who constitute it. This is demonstrated beautifully throughout the movie: The unspoken love between Bill Haden and (Mark Strong's character); Toby's weepy breakdown at the…

'Charlie Wilson's War' is an entirely disposable movie except for the scene in which PSH blows up in John Slattery's office. The scene is nothing special as written but Hoffman turns it into an aria of comic rage.

'Tinker Tailor' is a bit like 'Miller's Crossing' in that I believe it is destined to be remembered as a masterpiece, but it may take a decade of people rewatching it to absorb the plot in order for it to be properly appreciated.

I've been absolutely obsessed with Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden. It's a five-star album, in the sense that I am consistently compelled to listen to it all the way through. I'm going up to the Adirondacks next month and it's definitely going to be the sit-by-the-lake-drink-beer-and-stargaze album.

Gillian Anderson has apparently made a pact with the same demon as Marisa Tomei and Susan Sarandon.

All-time most attractive?

Recently my excellent neighborhood bar started serving something they call the 'Sea Shandy', which is delightfully refreshing in the hot months, particularly if you're looking for something low-alcohol (hey, I'll try anything once). It's: