"Shrewish" is suck a dickish word.

After 3 the books become tomes, so "better" depends on your mileage for increasingly detailed (sometimes leaden) back story. One result is that the films after 3 need to do more and more snipping just to stay under three hours.

I wouldn't say it's one scene, really, but the way a film that manages to be at once thoughtful and tense for over an hour rapidly degenerates into a rousing, predictable feel-goodie over the last 20 minutes or so. And not a kid's movie, just another timid Hollywood affair that doesn't have the courage to stick it's…

Yup, that's when the whole "for adults" thing goes flying right out the window.

Kid Rock? Oh, Cheap Trick, you deserve so much better . . .

And Mr. Roper!

Well, the movie is full of mixed signals. The "plastics" scene, for instance, so perfectly encapsulates everything that boomers hated about the "square" community that Benjamin's passive resistance to it seems an act of rebellion, no matter how small. And that passive, boredom-fueled resistance permeates the whole…

It's a great film, for a whole host of reasons. Definitely worth a re-watch!

He also did a lot of unpaid, uncredited work for John Cassavetes - including camera operating and just lending equipment to his friend.

I was lucky enough to get to interview him once a few years ago. It was meant to be a 30-minute discussion on a project I was working on (about Hal Ashby). He invited me to his apartment/office in Santa Monica and we talked for nearly 3 hours about his life, camera setups, lighting, civil rights and Cesar Chavez, John…

I don't think acknowledgement (or lack thereof) of Haskell Wexler's death is a generational thing, so much as it's a "nobody knows anything about non-directors" thing.

That's a bummer. I saw them once in '89 and again in the mid-90s and both shows were stellar - super long and full of energy throughout.

I totally get where Ritchie's coming from with this, but I've always thought the way he refers to himself as (gourmet) was a bit wanky.

and coffee jokes . . .

Yup . . . the book reviews were always slim and small in number, but incredibly thoughtful and really knowledgeable. Now they're not much better than a Cosmo review . . .

I wouldn't want to say for sure if the drop in quality writing is a generational thing, but the drop is definitely there. There are a lot more "take down to take down" pieces and there's a lot of really superficial, not-very-thoughtful analysis. You can read one of those "for your consideration pieces" till your…

Another old timer here, and I'd say the comments have evolve right along with the site, but in different ways. There are two aspects of the comments I enjoy. One is that for some commenters there's a real community here, a place that gets really personal sometimes. I'm not part of that, but I'm glad to see it's still…

The Lebowski songs, I think, were actually two different versions of the same song ("Just Dropped In"), and "Oh Death," from Oh, Brother, was the Undertaker's entrance music. All were different versions from the versions that play in Coen Bros. movies proper.

Gotcha, dude. Stay awesome!

I'll stand up for Marie Antoinette, too, but I really loved Somewhere. And I thought the tonal shifts (and the almost to obvious but worked for me framing device) were really organically developed. Yeah, I dug that one.