Apologies for the snark Dennis, but please try hard not to begin any more sentences with the words “Look” and “Hell.” Best of luck in your future endeavors.

Maybe award shows are idiotic and actors enjoy excessive social status, but observing normal life through such a transactional lens is reductive. If you don’t accept filmmaking and acting as an art form that - at its best - contributes constructively to society’s understanding or enjoyment of itself why are you…

Too late to edit. Here’s the link again:

To honor something as integral and unique to filmmaking as editing in the pre-ceremony seems inevitable. You might remember the year that the Oscars had “Lord of the Dance” Michael Flatley pay tribute to the craft.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o0o1yDg3fE&t=18s

I saw Cooley High for the first time during lockdown. Forget the influence on the What’s Happening series, this is Mean Streets (and Lords of Flatbush) in Chicago’s North Side. Like Scorsese, Eric Monte’s characterizations ring very true despite the low-budget filmmaking. There’s a sequence where two of the leads try…

Yup. Old lady was soundtracked by a cover of a Smiths song while Andrew D.perforned a number of earnest covers in the TikTok sketch.

Thanks for this, especially the link to the thread. I think some who used to regularly comment on the AV Club pop-culture-weekend threads of old contribute, yes? The pre-Kinja discussions were very entertaining. 

I just saw the original last month and was floored - especially by Tyrone Power. He was the main reason it took me so long to finally watch, and I felt a fool afterward. His Stan Carlisle was superbly realized. I don’t know if Bradley Cooper can match that blend of savvy, ambition and self-loathing. Here’s hoping. I…

You may be right, and this may be proof no artist is indie enough to escape the homogenizing maws of today's hype machine. If you'll excuse me, I need to yell at some kids from my porch. 

I wish that were true, but I never hear the (college-educated, well-paid) Millennials I work with talk about the likes of Kendrick Lamar or Tyler the Creator. It’s whoever is trending highest on Twitter. In the age of influencers and TikTok superstars, the allure and impact of fame created and sustained through social…

I’m assuming kids these days gravitate more toward the successful than previous. Those I went to school with were more into the Clash, Ramones, etc. despite their lack of chart success. 

That’s worse - smugly singing about love, acceptance, exclusivity. I miss genuinely good-hearted punks whose lyrics took the piss out of such platitudes. Anyway, my daughter was a kid when Grande was on Victorious and a tween during the Sam and Kat years. I was shocked she suddenly became such a megastar. When…

As a late period Boomer I liken Enid’s end to Jimmy’s in the Quadrophenia film - not suicide, but a symbolic acceptance of having to navigate the “real world” on its own terms. The white “blues” band may be the best satire of cultural appropriation ever (as well as the frat boy in the audience craving some Reggae).…

Ghostbusters was popular at the time, but so were Gremlins, Temple of Doom, Karate Kid, The Natural and Purple Rain... all released the summer of ‘84. I saw it opening weekend and - for a SNL-SCTV hybrid - I didn’t think it was as funny as Stripes. No one else I knew thought it was fish or fowl, either. But you could…

My wife and I were in our 30s, and yet to have children, when the first two Potter movies were released and really enjoyed them (well, Sorcerer’s Stone anyway). In retrospect, I think that was due to cultural timing - 9-11 had happened only a couple months before, and Sorcerer’s Stone, as well as Fellowship of the Ring…

They need to add the 1960s “Spider-Man” cartoon to their Marvel lineup - especially the Ralph Bakshi episodes.

I don’t know. Being able to master a “wheel that carries a flexible rope...or belt on its rim ... to transmit energy and motion” (ref. Britannica.com) seems like an extrasensory skill to me.

Don’t forget The Ballad of Dwight Frye.

This deep cut from The Kinks always makes my Halloween playlist:

Riding the teacups in Anaheim is a charming, even bonding experience. But even with the tent cover, the Orlando teacups only test human tolerance for heat and humidity - especially during monsoon season. Truly a product of pre-Hell.