Cameron H.

I've never seen Breaking Bad. I know Giancarlo Esposito. (And of course I know Don Johnson's "Heartbeat." Come on, son )

Count me in as someone else who has neither seen - nor cares to see - Breaking Bad. I watched the first episode years ago, because everyone was always talking about it, and it did nothing for me.

I always love to see Sam Jackson in early roles. I sometimes forget that even though he didn't really get big until, I want to say, Jurassic Park, he's been around forever. I was also thinking this might be the youngets I've seen Lawrence Fishburne, but then I turned on Apocalypse Now and I was like, "Oh, yeah! I forgot all about Baby-Baby Morpheus..."

I believe Psycho (and most of Hitchcock’s movies) is being removed at the end of September. So if you want to watch it before it leaves Starz, I’d do it as soon as possible

I think I would have appreciated it more if more of the movie was like that, but it just comes so late in the game. I think it was like 30mins into the movie or something. By that point, I had completely given up on there being any kind of big Musical numbers and then this scene comes out of nowhere like PLoW! And then, there's really nothing like it for the rest of the movie. I just don't feel like it worked overall - especially because the whole natural vs. straightened hair dynamic had just played out in dialogue. It was like, "You know that thing we clearly just talked about for two minutes? Well, now we're going to sing about it for another four - shifting the tone and style of the movie inexplicably - and bring no new insights." As I've said above: I appreciate what it is he's doing (or trying to do), but I just don't think it works.

Yeah, it seems to be trying to make a point about how horribly this or that group treats women, and I’m just like, “Well, it’s not like our ‘good guys’ are paragons of enlightenment.”

I don't think that it's so much that they are "best buds" so much as they have a better understanding of one another. I think that that whole last scene is just meant to be metaphorical. That is, "We need to stop fighting each other and figure this shit out."

I agree. It's kind of like the whole sub-plot regarding fraternities. I can't stand them, I never could. So I am already biased against movies about them. So I really had to look beyond that to understand what School Daze was saying about what fraternities as they might mean to people of color in the mid-Eighties. That, yes, there was the same toxicity about them that has always existed, but they also provided a place where people felt like they could belong. I liked the "Wake up" scene because it was saying all these things just provide a false sense of belonging (i.e. fraternities, sororities, colorism, etc) and they only serve to further weaken and divide.

I agree with you, Grud, in that I felt like the Musical numbers were out of place. It kind of took me out of the story rather than enhance it. Not to steal from Ghost’s Letterboxd review, but I felt like the movie had a lot of important stuff to say, but the narrative was kind of a mess. It was trying to do too much at once. I admire the ambition, but the pieces just don’t seem to fit quite right. Like, the “Wake Up” scene would have maybe been more effective in another movie.

One thing that was especially interesting was that Kelly not only shoots a man, but actually shoots him in the back. It’s really interesting to watch that character go from complete pacifist, to accepting violence in self-defense, to accepting violence as a preventative measure.

I haven’t seen Unforgiven in years, but I get that. I watched Stagecoach recently (it was on the ‘98 list) and I think I would have preferred that stayed on the list instead of The Searchers.

I just watched it a couple of weeks ago, it was pretty amazing I would put it on the list before High Noon, but I wouldn’t necessarily kick High Noon off.

Absolutely. Have you seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? It’s got Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne and tackles similar(ish) issues. I’d argue it’s a better movie.

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but he does break down and start crying at one point - right before the 14-year-old comes in and offers to help. I thought that was a pretty bold choice considering the time period and the genre.

West Side Story, Hamilton, The Lion King, Wicked, Book of Mormon, Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Singin’ in the Rain, Rocky Horror

Oof. Me too...

The hoodie only highlights his fugly mug and makes him even more self-conscious. He’s not insecure about the back of his head. The hoodie is the tool of Kendra.

It wouldn’t work because...

You beat me to it by 3 minutes...

It seems counter-intuitive, but that's how my high school did it. That way everyone was already in place at the beginning of the next school year. For example, you would elect who is going to be your Senior Class president at the end of Junior year. Not only does this give them time over the Summer to get prepared and have meetings and whatnot, but you're not wasting time holding an election at the beginning of the year that would just eat up their time in office.

I sent a PM to Joel, but I haven’t heard back. He just commented on Beastly yesterday, so he should be around. If we don’t hear from him by tomorrow morning, we’ll move on to Grudlian’s pick. Does that sound fair to everyone?

What if the movie ended with us watching her high heels get off the elevator, stop in front of his desk, and then, from off screen, you hear Anchor Dad say, “Beverly?” Credits.

I love it! I don’t want to step on your toes, but how do you feel about this: what if Kendra was his mom? She leaves because she’s fed up with their nonsense, dives into black magic, and glamours herself to look like a teenager. This might explain her fixation with Kyle and his father...