The thing about Lost in Translation is that it's not really a love story, and it's not really about their relationship with each other.

Even at the time, it was impossible to overlook the fact that every woman is a killer, a prostitute, a killer prostitute(!) or a rape victim.

The Dreamers is really, really good.

I really didn't like the "Don't… *choke* on your new authority" line.

Meh. Felt like a really long deleted scene.

Danvers says the translation is "disagreement." Louise says it's "the desire for more cows."

Very well done. Eastwood gets tremendous tension just from people sitting around a table, talking. At the end, you're seeing a reenactment of the crash for the third or fourth time (plus flight simulations) and it's more nerve wracking than before, since you know that certain paths will lead to disaster.

I liked this one. Everything about it screams "pretentious indie film," but in practice it plays out as refreshingly literate. Very good acting, gorgeously shot, and use of a metaphor or two (how about that lighthouse?) without bending over backwards to explain everything. It's been a bad year for people who like…

That's a little too kind by Duchovny. *Part* of the problem was that they tried to shoehorn too much into too few episodes. But the visual look was off, they tried to revive too much of the mythology, the paranoia angle stopped being fun and verged off into chemtrails lunacy, the "next generation Mulder and Scully"…

The flip side of that is just as bad. Women can't just choose Bass Man and expect to come back later, after they've learned their lesson. Actually nice guys (as opposed to Nice Guys) are not going to hang around forever when they're not wanted.

You already mentioned Danny DeVito as the Penguin, so how about a nomination for Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman?

It reminds me of Tolkein's phrase about Gollum:

He was more of a driven doctor who happened to be kind of a jerk. House celebrated how much of a jerk Dr. House could get away with being.

I don't get the Zach Braff hate. One better than average TV show and one polarizing movie is a pretty respectable record as far as minor stars go.

Solaris the book has one of the most haunting endings I can remember, and I think it sheds a lot of light on what Soderbergh was going for here:

I'm taking the miniseries as an opportunity to do a bit of a rewatch.

You know what, though? Lost was really great at putting well developed characters into situations where they passionately disagreed with each other. And for as complicated as the mythology got, there was always a simple through line — the Island is special, people want to control it, and people's reactions to the…

This is a difference between realism and show-universe realism, I think.

After watching the other five episodes, I forgot to tune in for this one. Which is a fair metaphor for where the series is right now.

You know what? I actually liked that Damon's character is a basically cheerful problem solver. It makes the movie more mature, not less.