Comments

1

What's a phone booth?

2

RE: vegan files charges against people who served her chicken

Nobody is friends with people like her.

If found guilty, they should have to do an hour each of community service for being jerks and receive a steak dinner at her expense for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

3

RE: Donnie wants to expose whistleblower

We'll let you know who the whistleblower is just as soon as you show everyone your tax returns

4

Christ, I'm old. Rex Harrison will always be Dr. Dolittle to me. I saw the 1960s version in the theater, and a bunch of times on TV as a kid.

5

@4 same

6

@1 It's a modern gig economy term-- it's the little closet where can take your laptop and close the door when you're at a co-working space and you need to get on a video conference without getting murdered by the people around you who are trying to get work done.

@4 @5 To me, Dr. Dolittle will always be the portly fellow depicted in Hugh Lofting's own illustrations.

8

'Uh, we renamed it "Indigenous Peoples' Day" precisely to avoid ever having to actually do something for you. Jeez.'

9

Mr Trump does not conflate himself with the entire country: he just knows that he is the only person in it who ought to matter.

10

@7 I dunno, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Departed were returns to form, if not his best work. Goodfellas was made less than 30 years ago, and Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, and After Hours were all made less than 40 years ago, and mark his peak, in my book. In fact, the only film he made more than 40 years ago that still stands up for me is Taxi Driver.

He's always lived in the 1970s as far as theory and criticism go, though, and that's defintely worn thin over the years

11

"Hugo" is pretty rad.

12

@7,

Can't exactly agree with you. I'd say Goodfellas was Scorsese's best (yeah, better than Raging Bull, imo) and that was less than 40 years ago. Casino, The Departed... also really good.

He IS overrated though, but not more so than several other filmmakers I can think of, top of the list being Steven Spielberg. Spielberg's peaked in the late 70's/early 80's and has been making mostly garbage since then, with the exception of two or three great films. M. Night Shyamalan is also way overrated, though I think most people realize that by now. Kubrick is overrated as well though he's been gone almost 20 years so, old news there. Eastwood's fairly overrated too, but I don't hear the same heaps of praise on him like on the former directors I mentioned.

14

Breaking news on Turkey & the Kurds:
By isolating Turkish President Erdogan, and effectively leaving him naked to an alliance of his enemies, Erdogan is now urgently asking for the U.S. to mediate peace negotiations with Kurdish forces.

This request happens immediately after President Trump signed an executive order triggering the sanction authority of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Erdogan called the White House requesting an urgent phone call with President Trump.

After President Trump talked to Kurdish General Mazloum Kobani Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, President Trump then discussed the options available to President Erdogan. As a result of that conversation, Erdogan requested the U.S. mediate negotiations. Vice-President Mike Pence announces he will be traveling to the region with National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien to lead that effort.

15

@7 -- I gotta take exception
one of the best anti-War (plus,
Western!) movies made:
The Outlaw Josey Wales.

The director quit (or was fired) weeks in and Eastwood (who [brilliantly] starred) directed, and brought it in 8 days ahead of schedule. In my Top Ten.

16

@14 -- so, trump and pence (at last!) have a shot at doing something Right? I already don't like the odds...

But -- Best of Luck, boys! Pull it outta your arses, and you'll get a Statue! And trump'll give himself a Medal of Honor, or two or so, and pence may not get Fired.

17

Fucking Dallas cops, man. They raided the Rainbow Lounge, they shot Botham Jean, and now this.

Militarism is the root of the problem. This fucked up country loves war too much. Everything is a war metaphor, civilians wear camp as if it were a fashion statement, the cops are trained to see themselves as at war with the civilians.

This country is always referring to itself as the New Rome; it’s not, this is the New Sparta. Our national religion was never Christianity. We have always worshipped Ares, not Jesus.

I have no quarrel with our servicemembers. It’s the system itself I oppose, not any individual actor within it.

This is so horrible. That poor woman. I can only imagine the horror her nephew must have felt. Holy tucking shit.

18

14

I don't see anything about Turkey "urgently asking" for Trump's help.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/465761-trump-calls-on-turkey-to-broker-ceasefire-pence-says

19

@16 I wouldn't jump to any conclusions based on news that appears to be breaking entirely in YGBKM's head.

20

The new Doc Dolittle looks good, worth owning;
Rex rocked One; it was fun and funny
and entertained some kids (and dads)
enormously, and the Science didn't hurt....

Love Eddie, but could not watch Two...

21

Regarding the cinema: Got to agree with Scorsese. About a year ago, I reached total burnout with comic book, superhero, Marvel, and DC blockbusters.

Alas, emotional and psychological maturity can't be staved off forever. I've put out the last of my hard won cash to watch one of these over-the-top kiddie cartoons. So the good news is that you won't have to stand behind me in line or climb over me trying to get to a seat. I won't be there. Neither will I be streaming it on any device.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of my favorite Downey films. I couldn't agree more that I'd rather see him go back to smaller films grounded in reality because he's a really, really good actor (a fact that's been overlooked or fogotten since he became Sherloc Holmes and then Ironman). But they probably piled the money so high, he couldn't see over the top of the pile. Who's to blame him for cashing in on Hollywood's foolishness to play Dr. Doolittle?

22

@3 Urgutha Forka for the WIN!
@15 kristofarian: Yeah, but.....the last time I saw Clint Eastwood he was hyper-delusional, talking to a chair at the NRC in 2012, and looking 1,000 yers old.
@16 kristofarian: Trumpty Dumpty and Dencey Pencey will always be criminally unhinged Right Wingnut to me.

23

@15,

LOVE The Outlaw Josie Wales! Also, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Joe Kidd, High Plains Drifter, Two Mules for Sister Sara... Eastwood really did nail Westerns, whether he was directing them or merely starring. Unforgiven was outstanding as well.

@21,
No doubt about the comic book movie burn out. I gave up around iron man 3 or avengers 3 or something and can't bring myself to watch many more. It's just too fucking much.

25

@23 I find Eastwood is at his best when he's merely staring.

I'll see myself out.

26

Jasmyne, if Trump has ever listened to anything by Future, then I'm a deposed Nigerian prince.

I'm glad that Schiff is focused on protecting the identity of the whistleblower(s). Trump is repeatedly asking if no one will rid him of this turbulent priest, and his base absolutely hears it.

@19: Seconded. There's a reason he never supplies URLs for his "news."

28

Yeah, Auntie Gee, Eastwood scolding
the chair was (bold but) Classic idiocy.

29

@1 I think phone booths are those cubicles where you can make phone calls without anyone other than the NSA FBI and CIA overhearing your conversation.

30

I think all members of Congress, the President (and all living Presidents) as well as any Federal judge should have their tax forms available for public viewing in their entirety. Transparency for everyone. Besides, I'd like to see how so many of our elected and appointed officials make all that money during and after they leave office

31

@30
Why not just make all tax returns public records?

32

@30 If only we had some way to bypass the legislature and put an idea like that directly to the electorate.

33

I would pick Tarantino for most overrated. It is exactly the kind of crap that Scorsese was talking about. They might as well be comic book movies. Good (or at least well paid) actors playing one dimensional characters. Dialog that has a few cute phrases, but is ultimately meaningless. Violent as fuck (of course -- America loves violence). Nothing insightful, nothing profound -- yet somehow people think it is brilliant because the staging is wonderful (or at least well crafted).

By sheer coincidence, I happened to watch Deliverance and Pulp Fiction a couple weeks ago. I see a lot of movies, but for whatever reason, never saw either one from start to finish.

Spoiler alert: If you've never seen Deliverance, don't read any further (just watch it, as long as you can handle a violent movie). Both are violent, and involve rape (of men), murder, great acting and some very entertaining scenes. But that is where the similarity ends.

Pulp Fiction was meaningless. I realize that was in the title, but still -- it lived up to its name. I have friends that can quote lines, or otherwise talk about particular scenes. But it was empty -- it was about nothing.

Deliverance, on the other hand, was brilliant. It had several themes, intertwined to form a masterpiece. Man versus nature. Culture clash. These are as important today as they were then. The key part of the movie (one often forgot, since there is so much going on) was the flooding of the river. It both starts and ends the movie. The city boys wanted to explore it for the last time. But for the rural residents, they were flooding their home. Towards the end there is a scene where they are digging up coffins, and moving them to higher ground. That is heavy enough, but there are excellent characters who evolve, and an exciting story that involves moral ambiguity. All of that, plus an amazing original soundtrack. Tarantino dreams of making a movie that good, but he never will. Scorsese did, though, which is saying a lot.

34

@33,

While I agree Tarantino is kinda overrated, I still adore Pulp Fiction. I actually do sort of agree that it's a film about "nothing" though I think that's exactly what Tarantino was going for... or rather, that he was going for a film in which you can't attach anything. It takes place seemingly out of time and space (like the old pulp comics), with completely unrelated time periods, characters, settings, and situations coming together in completely unbelievable coincidences to lead up to a single crazy gestalt. I don't know that that meaning is particularily... well... meaningful. But it's certainly weird. It was weird at the time of its release and it's still weird today. But in a focus-grouped, panel-researched, Disney-fied Hollywood, weird is fresh and fun.

Anyway, speaking of crazy coincidences, Tarantino conceived of Pulp Fiction as an homage to Scorsese's brilliant film Mean Streets. There are tons of references. And Scorsese himself loved Pulp Fiction.

But everyone's got their likes and dislikes. Not everyone likes Pulp Fiction (or other Tarantino films). Nothing wrong about that. It's good to have variety.

35

I concur, Urg -- Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds rocks too (Pitt was Oscar-worthy). Seeing QT get blowed up in D'Jango Unchained was a damn Moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avmxmssqaE8


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