The Hardcore Henry discussion put me in mind of Lilya 4-Ever. Lukas Moodyson filmmaker. Amazingly dark and poignant. He pretty much distilled first person horror into a 30 second scene. Something like Hardcore Henry just seems like a validation of Moodyson's derision. Recommended!

Glad to hear your The Witch review. A24 seems to specialize in taking B-Movie ideas and giving them serious treatment. That's cool, but in the 3 cases I've seen (Under the Skin, Ex Machina, and this) the results have been disappointing. Specifically, with the Witch, there was an inconsistency between treating some elements of the belief in witchcraft as psychological or societal prejudices and actual witch-y goings-on. It had it both ways, which I suppose is OK, but removes a lot of the power. The main thing this movie NAILED though is the many ways people are isolated and the consequences of that.

Great list! Some new discoveries on there for me. Thanks! Allow me one "you should check out..." (bc otherwise my ego won't be able to justify me commenting in the first place): Foxygen ...And Star Power. If you already know it and don't like it no sweat, I just thought it gels with some of your other picks. Anyway, again, nice list.

that wuz a grate show and here i thouhgt youd be talking about bprd or some shit thankz you all ars the beest

I retract my statement. I trust you guys implicitly.

Just sayin'... Not shying away from criticizing you b/c c'mon, we're here to keep you honest: if the tour thing is a joke, I think you're alienating your audience. Just sayin'...

Had a crap day. You guys cheered me right up. Well done.

Are you sure about the "Collections Review" magazine? I can't seem to find it, Google-wise. Thanks!

Robocop by Verhoeven. Why don't they make movies like this anymore?! I think our only hope is this: Shane Black pulls John McTiernana and Paul Verhoeven out of obscurity and into the Marvel franchise stuff. They make R-rated comic book movies and we are all happy again. Maybe Verhoeven should do Ghostrider, still with Nick Cage. Our happiness goes supernova when Werner Herzog agrees to do one of these as well. Get on it, Internet! Make it happen!

Forgive me, but I think Alex Ross is objectively kind of a bad painter. Look at Dr. Strange, Thor and the Hulk. http://www.comicbookdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Wizard-issue-42-cover-by-Alex-Ross.jpg

I haven't seen Nebraska either. I also tend to have issues with Payne. Election is hilarious, but brutal. About Schmidt and Sideways are just brutal and misanthropic, in my opinion (not that I think that would bother everybody). But I enjoyed the humanity I saw in The Descendents. I don't know, though, Nebraska has Bruce Dern, who I'd say I love to hate, but I think I just hate him. He gave us Laura Dern, though, so that was nice of him.

Did you guys see Nebraska?

It wasn't until I saw and loved Pacific Rim that I realized how much I disliked Man of Steel. And the reason is simple: Man of Steel does not feel alive. Some would use the word "organic" instead, but joy is really what Pacific Rim brought. Pacific Rim was messy in places, it was funny in places, it was flat-out exciting and fist-pumping in places. Comparatively, Man of Steel was one long power chord turned up to eleven. In that way, it felt very market-tested to me, as if every moment of the film had to be "fucking awesome". It reminded me of Stephen Soderbergh's anecdote in his "future of cinema" commencement speech(?) where he watched a guy fast forward through all the dialogue of a movie on his iPad to just get to the explosions and gunshots. "Mayhem porn" he called it, and that is Man of Steel. (*plus, talk about undeveloped scenes, characters popping out of nowhere, unnatural time jumps! yeesh!) Also, complete side note, but a couple months back you guys introduced me to Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. It was an off the cuff remark from Tucker, I believe during his Undisputed 3 craze. Allow me to simply say... Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, a million times over!

What was the other one from D&Q? Red colorology? Thanks.

I just watched the video for that song and I appreciate how excited Drake and his team are at the prospect of all this cool expensive stuff they get to do. They're not like "I drink vodka from a diamond skull" they're like "whoa! Jet skis!!" That vindicates them a lot in my eyes. Also I doubt that's Dan Deacon in the video, but I'm going to go ahead and assume that's Dan Deacon, making me appreciate Drake and his team that much more.

Surprised to hear you guys come down so hard on Gaiman. I love Coraline! Serious.

Dash Shaw and Jonny Negron immediately spring to mind.

Saga as a mainstream comic helps me understand a lot, actually. 1) Maybe this is why people like it so much: it's a replacement for the completely dull Marvel/DC series. Because for all intents and purposes, Brian K Vaughan should be writing a Big Two book. And I'd wager (not knowing squat about these things) that the offers have been made and he's chosen to reject them. He could never kill off characters or make "meaningful" stories with the branded heroes, so he's gone his own way. 2) Maybe this is why I dislike it so much: I honestly thought it was trying to be an alternative comic (and maybe it is) but was put off by the generic characters and the trope-y themes. I guess I wanted Omega Man and got Zardoz instead. ;-) PROPHET forever!

re: Saga, well it's nice to know I'm not the only one who's unimpressed. re: French comics, I've been giving some Humanoids stuff a try and been moderately pleased. Honestly, I'd be happy if I just read Deforge all the time.

Since we're talking indie comics... Just like I don't understand why people like Drake, I don't understand why people like Saga. Given benefit of the doubt but still I hear nothing but crickets