Technically they're usually more "embarrassing pleasures."

Answering that question would be a really major spoiler — a lot of the book is concerned with the question of whether Oswald acted alone, who else Epping might need to be keeping tabs on, whether he can just kill Oswald six months before Dallas and end it or there are plotters who'll find someone else, and so forth.…

Sorry, the Didion review is already in, and coming up soon. Also, have you actually read either of the books in question? Just wondering.

Hey, all those ridiculous titles are direct quotes. We do want to represent what you're getting here: a constant stream of bullshit cock-punch porn.

Oh right, speaking of which, here's where my friends laid out everything they've learned from Law & Order, which made it fairly clear to me that I wouldn't much enjoy the show:

It seemed only fair, since he is leaving The A.V. Club forever solely as a result of this article, as he says at the end. Whereas I remain here to praise Scott Pilgrim another day.

This may be true, JokersNuts, but you really have to judge art for itself, not for how other people react to it, approach it, use it, or misinterpret it.

In the comments for the "speculative fiction needs rules" FOC, I did admit that I'm fine with "Crank" and "Crank 2," which are aggressively about not having rules and not caring about consistency — but they work for me because they don't expect you to have an emotional investment in the characters. It's just fun…

I have not, but given that I already mentally count the minutes I give to pop culture, I find the concept pretty terrifying.

I'd really love to. There's a ton to say about both "Rum Diary" and Colin Clark's autobiographies vs. "My Week With Marilyn." The problem is finding the time, especially right now when we're being pounded with early deadlines and year-end content planning.

Chang isn't with us anymore, Cookie, but I'd throw down with you over oatmeal raisin cookies. Because why ruin perfectly good oatmeal cookies? I am fully in support of this anti-raisin T-shirt: http://bit.ly/vab9Yw

Me too.

I understand the people who want Scott to get with Knives, but I agree with her at the end of the movie where she basically says she's too cool for him now. Growing up for him means trying to have a real relationship; for her, it means getting over her infatuation with an immature jerk who's consistently mistreated…

I think it's pretty key that he generally doesn't have a choice — the exes keep attacking him. By the time Roxy shows up, Scott is very expressive about the fact that he didn't sign on for any of this and doesn't want to participate — which is a pretty direct metaphor for the fact that he wants the pretty, fun side of…

Hm. I'm not sure anyone here was left cold enough to take up the doesn't-like-this side on "Tree Of Life." Personally, I've been arguing that Scott should take me to task for not liking "Wendy And Lucy," which he and Keith were gaga for, but I can see that not being as popular or polarizing a discussion topic for the…

Yeah, I said in an AVQA years back that I rarely re-watch films; there are too many films I haven't seen. These days, the one exception seems to be if I like a film so much that I want to show it to as many people as possible, and I'm willing to re-watch it just to be in the room with friends as they experience it for…

Ha, yes. Annie Wilkes knows her narrative cheats. Though it always surprised me that she let him get away with that bee bullshit.

I've heard a bunch about this second-hand as well, and I agree with No Self; if your entire movie relies on a set of rules that seem nonsensical, and you have a secret reason in mind that explains why they AREN'T nonsensical, you should probably let the audience know what that reason is, and not leave it as subtext.

You could certainly argue that this is a case where the characters just don't know the rules and think they do, and they learn otherwise and it's a shock. But frankly, while I otherwise really like that film, that ending confrontation always bugged me. I kind of feel like it's coming out of a completely different…

IIRC, they also just call it "wrestling," implying that it's something mundane, during those many early lead-up mentions that try to build tension and expectation.