Jake Gittes

I still have no idea why Transcendence was pushed back from May 1 to July 10. It wouldn't have been huge, but it might have done better than everything else getting released over the next two weeks.

In the Loop was IFC and got an adapted screenplay nomination. I think Arquette has a better chance to be nominated than Hawke, though in an ideal world both of them would get in.

Watched it again and thought that, if the ending wasn't this rushed (which it really was, IMO), it might have been one of my all-time favorite films. The first 75 minutes are pretty much brilliant, and much more nuanced and rich than I previously thought.

The first movie I've seen in the theater that I hated, to the point of wanting my time and money back. I was 11.

Isn't The Incredibles #5?

Approving comment!

It's not just self-indulgent, it's self-masturbatory. I'm generally fine with the former (including in LVT's work), but I can't stand the latter.

I wonder what you're gonna think about Nymphomaniac.

I'd love to see this guy in another QT film. Waltz got all the acclaim for Basterds' opening scene but Menochet was very impressive as well. That whole cast he assembled for the live read is top-notch. I would love to see Russell, Goggins, Dern, Roth and Madsen all in the eventual film if it's truly his next.

Spielberg, Cameron, Nolan and Tarantino are probably the only directors whose names alone can sell a movie to a decent-sized audience these days. Scorsese is definitely better known today than ever before, but if his films were only seen by those who know who he is, they would never cross $50m domestic.

His Bad Lieutenant is awesome, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams is an excellent doc. Have yet to see everything else, but I very much look forward to it.

One of the Coens' most accessible and fun films, yet it's got some very effective dark moments (the KKK scene). I listen to the soundtrack all the time. The parallels with The Odyssey weren't really on my mind for the first third of the movie, but then they encountered the sirens and I couldn't stop laughing during the whole scene. Genius. Also, this is the best Clooney performance I've seen (with the caveat that I haven't seen Syriana and The Descendants), and a very rare occasion when he played more of a character and less of a version of himself. "Damn! We're in a tight spot!"

So Transcendence might finish with less than $25m total. That's hilarious.

That seems like a needless complication to me.

Gets here this coming Thursday. Can't wait.

If your C is 7/10, your D is 6/10, I can only assume 5/10 is already your F? Why do you even bother with a 10-grade system then?

No Malick and no PTA though.

I also can't help but disagree with some of the ranking (then again, it's inevitable with lists like this), but it's a very cool list regardless.

Trying to live up to your signature?

Jarmusch's The Limits of Control isn't all that great, but it's much better, and much more self-aware, than people give it credit for.

Yeah, I remember the romanticizing of McCandless and his actions felt pretty off. I should watch the movie again, though, it's been like 5-6 years. The soundtrack is great though.

Wonderful. Saw it the first time at home, really liked it; saw it the second time in the theater and was happy drowning in its atmosphere for two hours. The plot is minimal, but it never drags, slowly going from a hangout movie filled with wry, dry humor to a surprisingly effective drama about age and (im)mortality. The conceit never seems at all silly; it helps that the genre elements are being kept to a minimum. Another achievement is that, with main characters being vampires who constantly go on about how much better it was in the old days (i.e. hundreds of years ago), the film could have been bullshit hipster porn aiming for cheapest laughs, but Jarmusch is much smarter than that and largely keeps the irony out of the movie. It's still gloomily hilarious, but there's genuine sadness behind it all, which gets more and more apparent closer to the end. Tilda Swinton is a goddess. Best film of the year so far, Jarmusch's best since Ghost Dog. P.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spNCGEAOstU

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - November 21, 2008 Twilight - December 12, 2008 Shutter Island - October 2, 2009 Thor - July 16, 2010 Don't ask me how I still remember this.

1. No 2. No 3. No 4. Yes OW total: $92.3m