Building the Top 250

Harnessing the Metatext - Unforgiven

Clint Eastwood deconstructs westerns, tests his audience's patience, and delivers a masterpiece

Monthly Check-in

December 2025 Check In

Somehow the year is over? Yeesh.

Wes Anderson

A Sense of Belonging - Moonrise Kingdom

When society fails, fall out of it and build your own

Rian Johnson

Paying For Your Sins - Wake Up Dead Man

In which Benoit Blanc goes to church

Wicked

When All Your Dreams Come True - Wicked

Part One, For Good, and all the challenges of adaptation

Before Midnight

Myth Meets Reality - Before Midnight

It's one of the great cinematic love stories and unlike the others, this one isn't exactly a feel good...

Episode Reviews

Does the Title Even Matter Any More? - The Morning Show s04e10: "Knowing Violation"

Another season, another hinge point where Alex Levy makes news on a live broadcast?

Edgar Wright

Left Out In the Cold - The Running Man & the Films of Edgar Wright

In which I argue that maybe he should leave the emotion out of it...

World War II

That's Just the Way You Make Me Feel - Casablanca

So good, so good, so fucking real.

TV Reviews

A Night At the Opera - The Morning Show s04e09: "Un Bel Dei"

Sanctions be damned...

Tollywood

When Four Hours Isn't Long Enough - Baahubali: The Epic

The biggest 2022 theatrical release (for me anyways) was S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR, a major milestone in Indian cinema that crossed over to a global box office and took cinephiles by storm. RRR is a crowd pleaser, the sort of batshit insane high octane sugar rush that can get

Building the Top 250

Timeless Comedy - Airplane!

I swear I like funny things

Episode Reviews

Antepenultimate Sadness - The Morning Show s04e08: "The Parent Trap"

Bradley Jackson isn't in this episode because she doesn't have parents. Just a brother who was at the Capitol on Jan 6.

Monthly Check-in

November 2025 Check-In

The end of the year approacheth...

Wes Anderson

A Wonderful Melancholy - The Grand Budapest Hotel

With his first solo-writing credit, Wes Anderson distills his own style to its purest form

TV Reviews

Maybe Don't Lie to the FBI... Again - The Morning Show s04e07

And then we'll cut to the Pat Sajack tribute...

Theatre

Vampirates! - A Pirate Dinner Adventure Halloween Spooktacular

'tis the spooky season...

Building the Top 250

The Madness of Friendship - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

When life imitates art...

Episode Reviews

Getting on a Plane to Naples - The Morning Show s04e06: "If Then"

(With a layover in Rome...)

Soccer

Retrofitting in Retrospect

I promise this won't become like George R.R. Martin's baseball blog...

Building the Top 250

Be the Triangle You Want to See In the World - Seven Samurai

The circles alone are not enough.

Malazan

Sandee Boyz - Gardens of The Moon (Part 2 of 2)

When a Jaghut Tyrant comes to ruin your Fête...

TV Reviews

Tonal Chaos - The Morning Show s04e05: "Amari"

It's not so bad it's good. It's so bad it's fascinating.

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese Is How Old? - The Wolf of Wall Street

By the time he made this debauched, wild ride of a movie, Martin Scorsese was already collecting social security checks...

2025 James Cameron rewatch

Does This Count As Lazy? - Avatar: The Way of Water

13 years after 13 years later, James Cameron puts out another masterpiece.