That would be Calvin Schiraldi.

I think it's a fascinating film (I'm a big fan of all Coppola's movies). For one, I'm into slow cinema, and I really dig her "American indie" take on it. The "nothing happens" vibe, I think, is really important to the movies she's making, because they're about loneliness, and boredom, and that powerfully sad feeling…

Yes, I'm doing a slow re-watch right now. S2 had its moments but was not as good as I'd remembered. S3 is a lot of fun - even Lost in cages isn't all that bad (loopy Others plot logic aside) because there's so much good character stuff going on. But I'm on the back half now and just getting excited looking at episode…

Condolences to everybody who knew him. As everybody else has pointed out, his columns were a highlight of the site - to me they seemed like a holdover from old school AV Club. Also, based on his thoughtful give and take in the comments to his posts, he seemed like a real gentleman. Sorry to hear this news.

Yes, and on my second pass, recognizing that made the humor funnier and the heartache . . . I don't know . . . troubling and sad and relatable.

I tried watching this once not long after it came out and felt about the same, that the characters were just to shallow and unlikeable.

I find his "anti-PC" crusade a bit tired and pretty juvenile - same with his opinion of himself. But yeah, agreed about the Clark interview and his comments - could have use a lot more Clark, a lot less BEE.

Not in any way a fan of Bret Easton Ellis (drives me nuts), but a friend recommended his podcast from last week which also featured Clark. The BEE bookends were as annoying as I'd expected, but for more than an hour, he pretty much lets Clark talk and it's pretty great.

Really good list. I'd probably swap a bit of this and that, but somebody new to, or just getting back into, Phair would do well by this.

I think the "song by song" thing was pretty much pure marketing. But she has said a few times that, in spirit and attitude, it's a general response to Main Street's tone and as a package.

Still haven't seen Zero Theorem, but yes both Imaginarium and Tideland are fantastic (obviously, for different reasons). Even though Tideland feels "small," I'd rank it as one of Gilliam's best, or at least most fascinating. And I think it might be the best example in his work of getting performances that walk a line…

Episodes. It's hit or miss, but when it hits, it's really good. And he's great on it.

Although Reagan gets most of the blame (credit?) for the neoliberalization of the US economy, it was actually Carter who started it by undertaking massive deregulation of industries (mostly linked to transportation).

Undertow is pretty great, too.

The lighting and shallow focus help a lot, too, ensconcing them in that warm space they're creating.

Yes, totally! There's definitely a veneer of Hughes layered over all the SpeilKingbergEr.

Funny People has some really great stuff going on, a lot of potential. But it's also too long and an unwieldy mess. Sandler's good in it, though.

Yes! I love a lot of their stuff, but Kiko is hands down one of the best albums of the last 25 years.

The "death" of UA may be a bit hyperbolic, but as a company there were definitely in hard hard place after HG. They couldn't pay their bills, they couldn't afford to pay residuals, they couldn't pay talent for TV broadcasts, etc. So around Hollywood they became a joke - a company so untrustworthy that they weren't…

Maybe . . . maybe. But to buy that argument I'd have to see at least something nodding towards empirical evidence.