It’s quite a bold move to try to explore mediocrity. Most of us never rise above it anyway. But if you have talent and you use it to look at those who can’t get past the middle, it can be seen as condescending and/or gloating. That’s why the context of mediocrity is so important; when […]

Don’t try to recapture your childhood. You’ll just end up watching The Goonies, grumbling, and muttering to yourself that you can’t believe you were such an easily entertained idiot. You also weren’t precocious, just irritating. Precocious is how adults describe children who annoy them, when they’re too polite to say so. My fear of disillusioning […]

If we’re to believe the point of view of the Dr. Mengele doppelganger in the recent revenge-on-the-Nazis thriller The Debt, then the SS believed that the reason the Jews were the perfect victims was because they were not going to fight back. Not that they weren’t strong people, but that they believed in self-preservation. To […]

I was on Gtown radio on Friday morning to talk about the Medium Rare Cinema screening of the uncut version of Burn! (being shown at a new location), but also to talk about the Oscars. I took the opportunity to discuss my experience in voting in the Online Film Critics Society awards, and the various […]

Though it might have been his open plea to loosen monogamy’s grip on society, sex columnist Dan Savage’s veritable mantra that “all relationships end, except the one that doesn’t,” is oddly logical. At first it seems callous and cynical, relying on the notion that we all die alone, but, apart from ignoring the notion of […]

It was then. That doesn’t make it right. But that doesn’t make it different either.” – Comedian Greg Proops on why racist behavior in old movies shouldn’t be excused, but it shouldn’t make them worthless either.   The above quote is a canny way to explain away dated material without condemning it for being what […]