Thursday, January 2, 2014

SHOCKINGLY, ANCHORMAN 2 FAILED:  The bloggers at Vocativ break down 2013's top fifty box office hits based on their Bechdel Test results, finding the passing ones to have grossed quite a bit more than the failures. (With Gravity not categorized in either camp.)

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

ARE WE HOT? WE ARE NOT:  Last year, as you may recall, the Washington Post's In/Out for [Insert Year Here] Gurus correctly predicted the rise of Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon & Cecily Strong; ASAP Rocky; SpaceX; The 'Fro (though without realizing how it'd rise); and Cards Against Humanity, while whiffing on plans for a non-Clooney year.

What's in store for 2014? More Orange Is the New Black; Kristen and Lake Bell; spatchcocking; and "fancy lady hair for men"; while allegedly we'll be seeing less of Uber, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bitcoin. Time, truly, will tell.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

AN ODYSSEY:  Before we say goodbye to 2013, there's quite a lot we haven't discussed yet. Consider this a grab-bag post for you to hail the movies, tv, film, live performances, and books of this past year which none of us have gotten around to extolling.

I wish (and I know Randy feels the same) that I had flagged Mark Cousins' remarkable documentary series The Story of Film: An Odyssey, which aired its fifteen hour-long segments across this fall on Turner Classic Movies along with a fantastic accompanying schedule of films highlighted therein. Even for those of us who are occasional or former film geeks, there is so much to learn from Cousins' series, even from the parts of film history you think you already know well. As the Telegraph wrote for its UK release, the series was "visually ensnaring and intellectually lithe, [] at once a love letter to cinema, an unmissable masterclass, and a radical rewriting of movie history."

And it's all available for streaming on Netflix.

Monday, December 30, 2013

IS IT AN 'M' SHIRT?  Splitsider's 36 favorite comedy sketches of 2013. (Or just watch every Bill Brasky sketch ever.)

Necessary additions to the list, both from Key and Peele: Hingle McCringleberry's excessive celebration, referenced by the Saints' Lance Moore yesterday; and the East/West Bowl rap, which is gloriously specific in hitting its targets.
SATURDAY NIGHT'S GAMETIME TEMPERATURE EXPECTED TO BE TWENTY-SEVEN DEGREES: Dan Levy argues that while all divisional winners should be guaranteed playoff berths, seeding should be done by record so that San Francisco and New Orleans would be hosting Green Bay and Philadelphia, not vice versa.