Yeah, the ending just goes a little bit longer than expected. It’s not the giant subversion many critics make it out to be.

I think musicals normally require singing rather than just an instrumental score. Otherwise, it’s ballet.

The character in the novel is a Robert Redford type, and Ben’s parents seem just like Elaine’s. The Nichols & Buck Henry have somewhat jokingly said that his family had moved to California a long time ago and been transformed by the sun into resembling WASPs, but that Ben is an atavistic throwback. MAD Magazine…

I found it very stylishly directed but empty of substance. Ben just isn’t an interesting character, and there’s no explanation for what either woman sees in him. Another possible interpretation is the opposite of yours: it was based on a novel written by a genuine countercultural radical who donated all the profits…

Do military psyops use Facebook personality quizzes to better engage in targeted advertisement? I hadn’t heard of them doing so, but there’s no reason to rule it out either.

The rumors I’d been hearing on Criterion podcasts was that it would be Citizen Kane, or possibly Grand Budapest Hotel.

They could actually adapt the source material and thereby have virtually nothing to do with the film:

I like a lot of Nomeansno’s stuff, but “Sex is Philosophy” is significantly more unpleasant than their more typical gleeful nihilism.

Gators are a myth made up by Floridians, like dropbears in Australia.

Lots of political campaigns spend large of amounts of money on ineffective things. You really can’t reason from “they spent all that money” to “it must have been effective”.

Perhaps a bit of that crossed with “Leave No Trace”, since I don’t think they’re all cannibals.

Good catch! One could argue that Treehouse of Horror segments aren’t canonical, but I think it still fits as something Homer might do.

Todd Solondz laughs at the notion of digitally de-aging the original actor rather than just recasting. Don’t you want to be as cool as Solondz, Quentin?

Which of them do you think are still there at that time?

Homer does plenty of things Lisa wouldn’t approve of, like voting for Sideshow Bob.

Someone once suggested that being blackmailable could be an advantage for a politician, because the people with dirt on you can be sure you’ll do what they say. The question is whether Trump is shameless enough to be immune to blackmail.

Was a shady personality quiz on Facebook really that “important”?

I suppose that’s more appropriate for a 90s period piece like Super Dark Times, but those teens were realistic enough to make it a less audience-friendly experience.

I know “What about Barb” thing online may have annoyed you, but I liked that in the world of the show her death wasn’t ignored simply because she wasn’t a main character. But then I also liked that True Detective season 2 played straight the Austin Powers credits gag about a deceased goon’s family mourning the loss of…

He argues that it would have worked better as a seasonal anthology, in which case you might have gotten more enjoyable subsequent seasons.