Beltmann

The movie has three stories, and in the last Marcello Mastroianni nearly goes berserk trying to get Sophia into the sack. (In the first, she plays a woman about to be arrested, but discovers a loophole: As long as she's nursing a baby, the cops can't put her in jail... so she just keeps getting knocked up, over and over. Both stories use her, um, physicality to great advantage.)

I think "Misunderstood" is, at least partially, a deliberate jab at those who expected Being There to be like UT or A.M. Perhaps the best part of the jab is that it's followed by the very traditional "Far, Far Away."

Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis Here's a nifty video for

I saw that in the theater when I was a kid, and it has been a favorite ever since. (And when I think of Robin Wright Penn, Cary Elwes, or Mandy Patinkin, I always think of this movie first.) I'm happy to see that it has had such a long life... as a teacher, I use about 8-10 minutes from it to illustrate the concept of frame tale, and the kids always know the movie by heart. I can't wait to share it with my own daughter! Unfortunately, we're still a few years away...

Huh.

I have these on the shelf: The Ben Stiller Show Curb Your Enthusiasm Seasons 1-5 Errol Morris' First Person The Office USA Seasons 1-2 Police Squad! Seinfeld Seasons 1-7 Simpsons Seasons 3-6 Sledge Hammer! Season 1 V: The Original Miniseries; The Final Battle; The Complete Series

After her rock star husband dies in an overdose, junkie Maggie Cheung tries to go clean in order to see her young son. Although it travels familiar territory, it brings a unique tone to the proceedings--there's nothing hysterical or shrill or melodramatic about this story. It's the first Olivier Assayas film that I've really responded to, and I much prefer it over Irma Vep, his previous collaboration with Cheung.

Yeah, I seem to remember something like that, too.

Yeah, Rosemary's Baby is not-to-be-mentioned in our house anymore. Damn shame.

Wives rock. My wife and I had Wilco tickets during the summer of 2004, but when our daughter was born two days prior to the show, Stacy told me "Go," and she meant it. I went.

Stacy and I will try to be there!

Convinced me that Wilco might be the best band in America.

Man, I loved that movie when I was a kid. I even read the novelization.

I'd order them a little differently, but it's really something--there aren't any clunkers on the list.

When I saw that Greenwald doc about Fox News, Outfoxed, I felt that it suffered from regrettable tunnel vision: While it accurately charged Fox with bastardizing "journalism" through hysterical, fear-mongering mutations of the news, which effectively shut down intelligent discourse, the film erred, I think, by dogmatically singling out Fox as the sole offender.

I liked that movie a lot. It doesn

First, although I agree with you that certain interpretations are more valid and better defended than others, there are a host of critical theories--historical criticism, formal criticism, mimetic criticism, intertextual criticism, audience-response criticism, poststructural criticism, cultural criticism, feminist criticism, etc.--and these various approaches often contradict one another, and some of them require the rejection of one "true" interpretation. But, for the sake of argument, as long as the work in question appears to represent the artist's pure artistic intentions, why shouldn't

I went with "Seeds," but this is a bit like voting on which Scorsese movie is the most gentle.

No, it doesn't have to, because in a culture where commerce and art have always commingled freely, it's perfectly rational to separate Wilco's business moves from its artistic moves. You are describing a slippery slope that has no end... if we accept your premise, then every connotation ever connected to any work of art must be absorbed into an interpretation whether we want to or not. It would be impossible to read, see, or listen to anything without ascribing significance to any associations it might have, no matter how minor or transient they may be. What matters here for me is that Jef

I'm willing to concede that the commercial might be a little lame... but you don't really believe it's meant to be taken literally on any level, do you? Suggesting that this commercial advocates violence of any kind isn't just egregious over-reaching; it's an utter misreading of the tone of the commercial. Occasionally commercials employ silly exaggeration for humorous effect, in order to make the situation more memorable for viewers. No, I'm not from Union Grove (I've never even been there). Are you from these parts?

Go Go Gadget Arm!