edit: oh **** didn't realize he posted the scene im talking about so i don't have to care about spoilers.
its so great how he just walks right up and shoots him between the eyes and thats it.

no long drawn out battle where the guy who's been built up all movie to be a supreme bad ass gets the upper hand only for the hero to finally over come him or any of that nonsense.

dude doesn't even draw his weapon and he's dead.

just such an awesome scene.

im very curious how often ppl are able to guess what my selection is before they get to my reveal.

i try to make it a fun little game and it can be a lot of work sometimes to describe the movie as much as i want without making it too obv and giving it away.

Entirely true. And FU, you’ve bogarted two of my picks.

The Road.

haha which 2?

and great pick hillcoat is an amazing director and McCarthy is my fav author.

just a PSA if u haven't seen winter's bone it's on Netflix.
do yourself a favor and watch it asap it should have won every award.

yeah, Winters' Bone is great

u sure we shouldn't make this 50 rounds?

Haven't got it correct once.

Bourne and Winter’s Bone. Jennifer Lawrence was insanely good in that one, and she was still a teen, or so I think.

We need more teen sex movies.

Is this a pick, Howard? I'm confused.....The Viggo "The Road"??

If that's Howard's pick, Phat Mac is on the clock

ya that's def his pick

not sure what this is in reference to or if it's just a statement in general but there is zero sex in winter's bone.

Yes. The post-apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy treatment in which there is no redemption whatsoever for anyone.

Except in the title, of course.

Shorter write-ups for Tangerine and Lars and the Real Girl, I hope.

I didn't know what to expect from Tangerine, but I found it warm and humane. It begins, like any good romantic comedy, on Christmas Eve. Sin-Dee, a transgender hooker, has just been released from prison, and her best friend, Alexandra, another transgender hooker, meets her at Donut Time to welcome her and inform her that her boyfriend Chester, who is also her pimp, is cheating on her with a "white fish," a Caucasian biological woman. So Sin-Dee along with Alexandra, head out roaming the seemier side of LA looking for the fish. Along the way, Alexandra is handing out flyers for her singing performance in a bar. There's a subplot about a married taxi driver from Iran who cruises the streets picking up transgender hookers (by mistake he picks up a woman one time). The film, shot on an iphone, is great to look at, intimate at the same time, and nicely edited. For me the film culminated in this scene:



I remember this well from Laurel and Hardy's Babes in Toyland. It's a song about crossing borders and once those borders are crossed, you just can't return.

Only Sin-Dee and the white fish watch Alexandra perform, and we learn she has paid to perform. The final moment of the film is lovely and touching as the two friends sit in a laundromat, cleaning up after a great humiliation. It's what friends are for.

Shakespearean comedies typically end with a marriage ceremony, which is simply a ritual that reaffirms the values of the society. These comedies often feature a confusion about identity and a place where a special sort of transformation can occur.

Lars and the Real Girl is another romantic comedy. It does not end in a wedding, but the film seeks to reaffirm the values of the community in which the comedy takes place. Lars, a possibly autistic, possibly dissociative young man, played by Ryan Gosling, seeks companionship by ordering a sex doll, which he introduces to everyone as his girlfriend, and he carts her around in a wheelchair (and justifies her lack of mobility). He also concocts stories to explain where she comes from and her inability to speak.

Lars' brother and sister-in-law seek to help Lars by bringing him to a doctor, wonderfully portrayed by Patricia Clarkson, who simply suggests that everyone go along with this delusion. And almost everyone in the town does go along with the delusion. The townspeople like Bianca, the sex doll, because, at heart, they are good people who love Lars. BIanca even "reads" to school kids.

As in Tangerine, music is the key to one of my favorite scenes:



I can't think of a better song for this scene.

It's a great little film, one about home and community, without which we all can manage, but why should we have to? Lars and Bianca unite this community. And the community is better for it.

two more incredible movies

John, didn't you show these two films in your romantic comedy class this past year? What did your students think of them?

I did, and the class loved them.

Phat Mac is skipped - Kioshk is on the clock!

Dogtown and Z-Boys

Documentary. Please don't confuse it with the docudrama they attempted to make of it.

Write-ups eventually. I'll give you this now...

Our first doc! I'm betting it won't be the last.

Don't tell me I've got 4 hours and then PM me that I'm skipped after 2 1/2--it's really ****ing annoying.

I would have started the docs earlier, but the draft was extended so I waited since they're basically snipe-proof.