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One interesting thing here is that they never say what Smith's state is (just like The Simpsons!). Though if you had to name it, the state is Montana. The screenplay was based on an unpublished novel called "The Gentleman from Montana." https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/opinion/07mcnamer.html

I knew this would be a mixed bag in reaction when I picked it -- some of us will just be in the right mood and enjoy the hell out of it, and others will be confounded. Maybe that's true for every movie, but I think melodramatic hiphop musicals set in the '30s can feel like there are way too many angles going on. I can see the low energy critique but for me, but I think, for Dre at least, that was a character choice. Also thinking about it, the romance brings me in: I liked Dre and Paula together and felt their story. If it wasn't there, I would've certainly felt more cut off from the story.

Seriously, I liked this movie. Very glad AlmostAGhost streamed it because the group chat helped me make sense of it. I might have bailed a few times otherwise and taken it in chunks. In the middle it seemed like the musical Chicago with musical numbers strung through by a bare plot but it got more emotional as it went on. Good pick!

This movie was IdleWILD, am I right? Hello? Is this thing on?

It’s cool to take a picture of your dead lover if they are really SpottieOttieDopaliscious, right? We watched:

that would have made this better

I wouldn’t say “confounded” exactly. I got it, I just wasn’t feeling it. The only thing I didn’t get was why “Angel” was mad at him when she found out he knew her secret. Like, that’s ideal! Now you don’t have to go through the whole “fess up and have him mad at you for lying” thing. You’re in the clear!

This was essentially my take (although I watched it alone and *did* bail a couple of times ). It’s not that it was bad. It’s parts were all solid, but not the sum of the parts. Honestly, I found the plot to be kind of dull. Take out the music, and occasional visual flair, and the plot was a pretty basic Prohibition Era drama. Everything was pretty predictable. I mean, who at this point isn’t like “That’s going to stop a bullet” when a character is handed a Bible? It also didn’t help that André and Boi play most everything so unflappably low energy. Aside from the music, I never really felt like they were in it, and consequently, I was never really in it. It’s not that it was bad, but my focus kept wandering as I watched.

What is it about musicals and gangster films that seemingly go so well together? It's like chocolate and peanut butter. I really enjoyed rewatching this film (if I was to guess, I'd say I hadn't seen this in 11 years or more and reconnecting to the world of Idlewild, GA. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said that Idlewild was seemingly an "African-American Moulin Rogue" an you know what the comparison kind of fits. Between the anachronistic music (which I think really works in this consider that the roots of hip-hop and funk can be found in the African-American jazz sound). What struck me is how...young I guess the leading cast is. The veteran African-American characters are killed off (or run away) leaving some very hungry characters to fill their place(sometimes figuratively sometimes literally), be it Ving Rhames' Spats or Patti LeBelle's Angel.

Totally coincidentally, I swear, I am watching Bambi and clearly the forest fire at the end was because nobody raked the floors

Hot damn! I not only made the C&O for the first time, but i won the coveted Nothing! This is the best day ever...

I never did the list comparison stuff: BP Status: nominated, winner -> Gone With the Wind (#7 on the list) AFI Ranking (2007): 26 AFI Ranking (1997): 29 BFI - Critics Vote Count: 0 BFI - Critics Ranking: N/A BFI - Crictics Ranking (US Filtered): N/A BFI - Director Vote Count: 0 BFI - Director Ranking: N/A BFI - Director Ranking (US Filtered): N/A IMDB Ranking: 164 IMDB Rating: 8.2 Metascore: 73 They Shoot Films: 653 The Shoot Films (US Filtered): TBD BP Status: nominated, did not win. winner was Gone With the Wind (#7 on the list) The BFI results kind of stand out there, in that I think it's the first that didn't get any votes in either poll. And Americans are in the poll. Given the contrast with its AFI ranking, the two things that it makes me think is, lots of people like this movie, but it's just not a top 10 movie for most people*. Granted, I did come down kinda hard on this movie, so that's skewing how I'm interpreting those numbers. *: or at least people who vote in these polls. Unless the people selected for these two polls just have radically different tastes.

Rooster owed $1100 to Terrence Howard. Not sure about the other debts.

If we can get 4000 replies on this thread before the next episode Hayes will bring back the popcorn gallery

You made it on this week's ep!

Yes. 1,000 times.

Still supporting Woody Allen...

Was your grandfather Ned Flanders?

It all makes sense, the walls, the fence, the scratch marks down the door.