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I feel like female directors have been KILLIN IT this year. Unfortunately I don't think any of them will be as recognized by the awards system, with some exceptions like Awkwafina for Best Actress and JLo for Best Supporting Actress. But I think that Lulu Wang and Greta Gerwig should be recognized as directors and you know they never would.

This would have been a better poster to show "urban decay".

I felt similarly about all the relationship stuff. You have Rabbit (I know it was spelled different but so what) who seems to be crushing on... I don't recall all the names, blondie. He gets, short hair to bring her along because she's good looking and obviously he likes her. Then the girls start sleeping with Hot Lips and then the brunette girl asks Rabbit "If we weren't in a band would you go out with me?" Where did that come from? It's not really brought up until the end again when he's talking about where everybody is. Even there it is vague as if they're an item or not.

I would say the two mainstream movies that I very much hated with a passion were Brightburn and Hellboy. Both are movies that want so hard to be "R rated" and "edgy" that they don't take time to ask if that makes sense. Brightburn wants to be Superman gone bad without understanding what Superman is about or how cliched and over done that is. Hellboy I guess wanted to distance itself from the previous one by being a hard R so everybody says fuck ever other word. I mean the start of the film has three major just "really" moments in. First, needless swearing, second a crow eats an eyeball out of corpse because look it's dark and three a title card with a date that immediately goes into narration that says the date and place. That's just sloppy. Either it's just laziness, dumbness or pandering to foreign markets but it's bad film making. Oh, and 6 Underground falls into a lot of that as well. I mean I saw technically worse movies this year but some of them were so boring they're not worth hating, Io, and others are just horrible shit made for no money so what was I expecting, The Banana Splits and Critters Attack! There was also some Brenda Song movie I watched which was so bad my mind has actively blocked it.

While I enjoyed the movie, I do kind of feel like it has a few too many characters. Like, the bass player and the guitar player are set up as main characters (it’s their band after all that starts the whole thing), but I could not tell you their names without looking them up. I think the problem with so many characters is that rather than getting deep on any particular storyline, conflicts get introduced but are almost immediately resolved. For example, the original drummer leaves so they get their psychotic bud to replace him. There’s one scene of him rehearsing where it’s set up that he’s going to be a disaster and then it cuts to their gig and he’s absolutely fine. Maybe the book gets deeper into these things, but I feel like if you have a character who is “a violent drummer who hates the lead singer” and replace him with “a violent drummer who hates the lead singer” then I have no problem combining those two characters and writing somebody out.

Especially when it seems that very few of the people in the band listened to or had any interest in soul music. This is a cover band. Maybe they would have started writing their own songs but a cover band of a style instead of a particular band probably isn't going anywhere big. And it appears that the artists they were covering seemed to be active and occasionally playing in Dublin.

Obviously I love the movie but the music is the big draw. Supposedly the music was recorded live to preserve the performances as they were. That seems like they did it during the rehearsal scenes but I am not sure about the club gigs. There is one or two spots (the fight at the roller rink where the music and singing trail off) but Try A Little Tenderness seems too spot on. I also know there is another singer for some of the songs, Niamh Kavanaugh. I'm not sure how they worked her in or if they didn't film songs she participated in.

That's the point. Jimmy thought the music would appeal to the "working-class" and never thought through that the working class was limited, or that other cultures' working class would have different tastes or aspirations. I hadn't thought of that until now but it explains a lot for me.

One man’s story to become a world famous band manager. We watched:

I mean it was made by the Gunn family so...

I feel bad for Bernie (sp?).

I’ve been in the process of watching Us over the past few days, but my Internet HATES it - lol. I can only go a few minutes at a time before it drops. Keep in mind, everything else works. The only thing having trouble is Us.

I really enjoyed the movie, but I really didn’t understand exactly how an Irish band that exclusively performs covers of Sixties souls music was ever supposed to become world famous. Like, I get how the type of music was supposed to reflect and be relatable to early 90’s Dublin, but I didn’t understand how that was supposed translate to international stardom. At best, I felt like they’d be a really well-liked local band. Maybe if the movie was set in the Sixties, but early 90’s? I don’t know...

When asked, I describe my humor like I describe the old Lysol Cleaning Wipes under my kitchen sink. A LITTLE DRY!1

I’m in my mad dash to watch as many 2019 films as I can before the New Year, and I was wondering what everyone’s favorite movies of the year have been. Feel free to rank as many as you feel

'MEAN GREEN BEAN FIGHTING MACHINE' and nine other reasons I got kicked out of farm college: a TED talk.

A wet log from the vet's dog: come shit on my chest, doc.

Whenever my stallion breaks his leg, we take him to the HORSE-pital. Then we shoot him.

Great list! I haven’t seen as many of them as I’d like. I’ll have to spend some more time thinking about it. I will second The Farewell, Booksmart,Ad Astra and Knives Out. I’m not into ranked lists, but Parasite was my favorite movie of the year. I won’t claim it’s flawless, but I loved The Irishman. (I will go out on a limb and agree somewhat with Scorsese: whether they are “cinema” or not, I am fucking burnt out on Marvel and Star Wars films. Though I did really like the Watchmen HBO series). i have to rewatch it to solidify my opinion, but a shout-out to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Not everyone loved it, but that’s what makes a film interesting. I also loved Us. more to come!

These aren't in any particular order. I want to note that I haven't seen 1917 or Portrait Of A Lady On Fire which I both suspect will make my top 10-20. Marriage Story Uncut Gems Homecoming Parasite The Farewell Little Women Booksmart Waves A Hidden Life Honey Boy Ad Astra Avengers: Endgame Brittany Runs A Marathon Knives Out Toy Story 4

SHAUN DISTON returns to help The Boys make a Christmas album.

TATIANA MASLANY joins The Boys to perform some dramatic scenes.

FELICIA DAY joins The Boys to make nerds show.

Sean's criticism about people testifying about the real world on Twitter broke my heart.

I've tweeted about this before...I like all of Conan's guests. That said, it's been mostly an old boys club. Not the kind of guys I think that would make up an old boys club, and most of them (Conan included) would probably be the first to say they wouldn't want to be a part of an old boy's club....but that's what it's turning into. It's weird because I've always thought of Conan as ahead of the curve with the history of his show, his humor, his intelligence and his ability to shake things up and be spontaneous. Here, on a format that he should have more freedom to do as he likes, he's opting to keep it a male buddy group. I guess I can't wrap my head around that this is his active choice. Yes, there are a few female guests. A FEW. Kristen Bell, wife of fellow friend guest Dax Shepard, and Megan Mullally (who came on with husband Nick Offerman), and Wanda Sykes. All excellent. On his previous in-depth discussion series, Serious Jibber-Jabber there were no female guests. (I double checked on the Conan website, please correct me if one is missing.). Is it awkward for him to have a longer in depth with a female guest? Is it because he likely is friends with more dudes, and strictly following that for planning the show? My thought is he should make an effort and put himself in a slightly less comfortable, unnatural place (he'll be fine) in a conscious way-- like literally make a number count and book them, a woman for every man who has guested...and maybe in time it actually won't be so weird and unnatural, and he can have friends without having to think one way or another about it. There are so many smart, witty, talented women who deserve the honor of being asked to participate.