This will necessarily be a short article.

The Academy Awards are so great because they keep us in touch with the ratty old values of our forefathers and foremothers. We no longer know how to churn butter, or why it’s improper to wear white after Labor Day, but we can still bond with our grandparents over our terrible taste in Cinematic Art.

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I wish I knew how to quit you

I admit I enjoyed Pineapple Express more than I expected. Turns out it’s much more wholesome than Knocked Up and Superbad and other Judd Apatow Factory products, because Apatow & Co. have pretty much come out of the closet entirely in this one. Finally! No more pretending it matters whether it’s possible to find a way to like women, or live with them, or even just score with them; no, they’re up front here about what really counts, which is true love among men. Call this one Judd Apatow’s Brokeback Mountain. (more…)

So I’m just back from watching The Dark Knight with an audience of about five hundred reverent teenagers, some of them urgently muttering, “Yeah! Yeah!” during the more violent action sequences, and I can confirm that this film has indeed raised the bar as far as the quality of our summer superhero films this year.

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