FilmCriticHulk had a wonderful essay where he diagnosed the biggest problem with Hollywood screenplays today, as the fact that they assume empathy on the part of the audience. The assumption is that the screenwriters don’t need to give the audience a reason to care about the protagonist, because hey, if they didn’t…

At the time of his March 3 death, officials said, the 33-year-old appeared to be suffering from excited delirium, which often includes attempts at violence, unexpected strength and very high body temperature.

I think the strongest indication why it won’t work is because it’s an image designed to be shown on the evening news. Which would only work for people who watch the evening news. But yes, Stassa’s point is completely well-taken, and it is vapid image-consciousness, for two basic reasons.

. . . And the “Mission Accomplished!” banner that was waving behind George W. Bush during his victory lap speech on the aircraft carrier in 2004 was technically for the aircraft carrier, which had just returned from a tour in the Persian Gulf.

Yeah, speaking as a dyed-in-the-wool feminist, this film is probably second only to Beauty and the Beast in terms of how feminist literary theory really needs to incorporate the concept that Tropes are Tools, not inherent value statements.

Hell, I’m mad Wall-E didn’t win Best Picture that year. This was the year Kate Winslet and Harvey Weinstein’s Throw-Every-Nazi-Trope-And-The-Kitchen-Sink-At-The-Oscar-Voters movie The Reader won Best Picture, despite the fact that the clear battle should have been between The Dark Knight and Wall-E.

This is perfectly true. The problem is, if a slogan creates an unintended ‘knee-jerk’ reaction, like ‘ALM’, then it’s not lading right for certain people.

In my experience, the easiest way to test whether or not someone understands Rev. Dr. King, and agrees with him, is whether or not they can remember any quote from him that is neither “the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice”, nor “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a…

Agreed. At a certain level, I am always pleased when an alcoholic admits that he has a problem. I am less enthused when an alcoholic confuses the first step, namely, admit you have a problem, with all twelve steps. As is, our political structure suffers from a perpetual underpants gnome problem. It’s always willing to…

Well, there is an obvious downside: there’s only so much you can do about the Iowa 4th District, because it’s rural, white and has little in the way of college education. Put that together, and you’ve got yourself a Trump District Cocktail. As much as I would like non-college educated rural whites to see their…

You don’t understand. The problem isn’t that Trump is cynically peddling snake oil to rubes. The problem is that this is the Jesus these people believe in:

Don’t sell Yen short.

Just to add: It’s already starting.

“[White privilege] a liberal, political construct...it’s designed to intimidate, get people to shut up and admit they’re guilty of doing things they haven’t done,” he explains. “I’m not going to agree with any aspect of it as they put it forth. I’m not denying that there are certain individuals out there that think…

But that’s the nature of technology. Advancements in tech often leave behind lost jobs and unnecessary resources.

“Rap” might be a little overblown. It’s really suffering the same thing that, say, Legend suffers from. On it’s own, it’s not a great fantasy film, but it’s also not terrible, and it has one or two characters like Meg Mucklebones or Tim Curry’s devil that are iconic in genre fiction circles even if nobody can really…

Look, there are a few ways that this can go other than the police unilaterally de-escalating. All of those options are catastrophic. One, the protesters can unilaterally de-escalate. In that case, sure, there’s the pretense of peace. But it’s a peace at the end of a gun barrel, which is not real peace, and will not be…

“Oh, king eh? How did you get that title? By exploiting the prey animals! By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma, which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our ecosystem!”

Er, well, I don’t it’s wrong in theory to mull these kinds of things over. But I’m now trying to think of a way to non-traumatically asphyxiate under the weight of three other human beings, and I’m drawing a blank here. Like, I suppose there’s that suicide where you run the car engine in a garage and take a handful of…