Take Shelter felt so incredibly real— nothing in it felt like a set or a prop, and every actor disappeared into their character. It's what made the movie work: the visions and dreams wouldn't be so compelling if they didn't have that incredible verisimilitude to them.

That's a great review by Dowd, and one that, along with a lot of comments from people who liked the movie, really lays out why the Marvel films don't work for me: they seem to be universally aiming for a standard of "good enough."

I don't know about Conan herself, but as a female parallel to the first story, where he's a wise, experienced old king, gripped by melancholy and ennui but with the fire of war still burning him? Yeah, she could do that.

I Am Here….Now (there's four periods, inexplicably) is rough. It's got a lot of his obsessions in it, but it's really badly-paced, even for a Breen film, and definitely less exciting than the other two. Still worth seeing, though— bits like Neil Breen's cyber-messiah helping an old man in a wheelchair get laid are…

Neil Breen is such an amazing and beautiful filmmaker. If you haven't seen Fateful Findings, you need to seek it out. It's so goddamn bizarre.

Such sights to show you. Just, such great sights, okay. Your suffering, it's gonna be legendary. Believe me, it's gonna be legendary. Even in hell.

Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic and one of the greatest game developers to ever live, was never on board with the cool, Poochie elements of the character— he always wanted Sonic to be a whimsical, colorful adventure. You can definitely see this in some of his other work: NiGHTS Into Dreams is a candy-colored fun ride,…

It literally involves an oil company desecrating an Indian burial ground. We're in Seagal territory, folks.

I'm pretty sure that he's just laboring under Alan Moore's warlock curses.

Finally, we agree on something.

Nah, I won't argue— my fiancée actually feels the same, so know that you're not alone. As far as the horror elements go, Don't Breathe is probably more tightly constructed and committed to the genre. Green Room's really shaggy and weirdly paced. I just responded to more of the tertiary stuff in Green Room. I wouod…

I don't speak as an expert on the genre or anything, but the big reference point is Suspiria: young girl consumed by a feminine industry that is a cover for witchcraft and corruption, shot in lurid, saturated colors. Blood and Black Lace feels like an influence as well, what with being a lush, color-soaked horror film…

Oh man, it's nice to hear some praise thrown Refn's way for his horror chops. Only God Forgives, despite its faults, built an atmosphere of dread and misery like nobody's business. I wasn't super-crazy about Neon Demon, but I respect it for being a horror throwback that acknowledged the existence of horror filmmakers…

Don't Breathe was great, and I feel like the only reason I don't talk about it more is because Green Room was the better grimy siege horror film about white masculinity to come out this year. Especially impressed by the production design and scene-setting; they did an incredible job of making the house feel real and…

No Dreamworks! It's the Devil's studio!

He's certainly the most unimpressive person to ever graduate magma cum lauds from Harvard, teach at an Ivy League school, get elected Senator and President, have a great family life, write best-selling books, and fundamentally change the way political campaigns are run.

He was going to mention Run the Jewels, but it would have been bad politics, since Killer Mike endorsed Bernie Sanders and El-P endorsed moving to a cabin in the woods, burning off your fingertips, and trying to blow spy drones out of the sky with a shotgun.

I hope not. I'm sure he'd be excellent at the job, but a) he would likely hate doing it, and b) ethical implications would require him to recuse himself constantly whenever the constitutionality of actions by his own administration was up before the court.

The point isn't one of realism, it's that horror films represent a version of the real world. That comic isn't saying "women should be believed when they talk about ghosts and monsters," it's saying that this behavior in horror reflects the way that women in real life aren't believed about trauma. The Evil Dead…

If you can think of comparable male examples, it can still be "a woman thing." The fact that it sometimes happens to men doesn't mean that, when it happens to women, it's not reflective of larger gender issues in art and society. Just because a critical viewpoint is not universally applicable to all art doesn't make…