Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Books are my comfort food!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Republicans don’t trust women.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

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Reader Interactions

98Comments

  13. 13.

    Jim C

    If you really are looking to fall asleep, put on an episode of McMillan & Wife. Downshift To Danger, to choose one, will lull you to sleep soon enough.

  14. 14.

    cinesimon

    Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1986 masterpiece ‘Offret’ or The Sacrifice – it’s so, so beautiful – but also an excellent film to fall asleep to.
    But you should try to watch it properly some day, also.

  15. 15.

    patroclus

    I don’t know – giving a movie recommendation just seems like fighting the same old battles and I just get tired of it…

    But, The Wind and the Lion is a great movie full of Sean Connery and North Africa and TR…and The Man Who Would Be King is Connery’s all-time signature role. If you haven’t seen the Descendants, it’s really really good and if you like George Clooney, “Michael Clayton” is his best role. If you want a downer, “Being Flynn” is an excellent film, with Robert DeNiro. If you want a fun-filled adventure, John Carter from Mars is actually WAY better than most think. And, “Moon over Parador” is hilarious as always…

  18. 18.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    I finally saw Hugo a few weeks ago. Watch it if you haven’t already.

  21. 21.

    Some Guy

    Hugo. It’s terrific. Magical movie. Best in 3D, and I say they about no movie but this one, but it will be great in 2D.

  24. 24.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @patroclus:

    …The Man Who Would Be King …

    Along the same lines- adventure film set in the 19th Century- I recommend Mountains of the Moon, which is based on the search for the source of the Nile by Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke. I have no idea whether it’s on Netflix, but it’s worth the hunt.

  25. 25.

    Violet

    @Unabogie: That’s a cute movie. Not a great movie, but fun.

    @patroclus: I just didn’t get “The Descendents.” I enjoyed it, but didn’t think it was all that great. Didn’t understand all the praise. George Clooney was good in it and I enjoyed the older daughter, but overall I wasn’t all that impressed.

  30. 30.

    sb

    @Mnemosyne: Carpenter. I heard not nice things about the remake.

    Mnemosyne, assuming you’re familiar with with the Carpenter flick, check out this recent article about the ending of the film (SPOILER).

    I have to say, I’m a believer.

  31. 31.

    The Dangerman

    Midsomer Murders ALWAYS puts me to sleep; not sure if it’s the background music or the speech cadence, but, doesn’t really matter time of day, it’s lights out…

    …then I have to watch it again to figure out what the hell happened in that episode. Very frustrating.

  32. 32.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    A few foreign films: Diva, Cinema Paradiso (avoid Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, the extended cut, which loses something in the addition), Il Postino and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg– the first is a stylish film noir, the last three are romantic melodramas for guys.

    ETA: And I just realized that Phillipe Noiret co-stars in three of the four here.

  36. 36.

    burnspbesq

    If you really want to fall asleep, there’s test cricket tonight. India vs. Australia, from Chennai. Starts at midnight eastern time.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    @sb:

    “I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I’d rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!”

    I can’t say I love the movie because it has too many gross-out moments for that, but it’s one of the great modern horror films.

  39. 39.

    WaynersT

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Jeff who lives at home may be good ( and I love Jason Segel) but it has all this batshit extreme handheld camera work al a Hunger Game that made it physically unwatchable for me. The Duplass brothers shoot everything that way and it’s really awful.

  40. 40.

    Percysowner

    For a unique foreign film, Departures. It’s from Japan. It’s the story of a cellist who can’t make a living playing cello so he returns home and becomes someone who prepares the dead for burial. It’s lyrical, beautiful and quite touching.

  43. 43.

    tatateeta

    How about “The Gift”?I thought it was a really good movie that didn’t get much fanfare. Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi. Even a cameo role by Katie Holmes.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    @Violet:

    I really loved The Descendants because, unfortunately, my extended family has been in similar situations more than once (ie having to pick the pieces up after an unexpected fatal accident). It felt surprisingly true-to-life to me in a lot of the interactions between the characters, like the moment when Clooney’s character is so tempted to tell his father-in-law that, no, his daughter wasn’t a good wife like his FIL keeps claiming, she was cheating on him, but he just lets it go because adding more pain to the situation is only going to make things worse.

  49. 49.

    tatateeta

    Also “The 13th Warrior”. It’s an adventure movie, I suppose, but it has some interesting scenes. I really liked the way in which they showed the Arab picking up the norse language from the Vikings.

  51. 51.

    handsmile

    Films to fall asleep to?

    Each one a masterpiece, the slow rhythms, long takes, gradually unfolding plots, and overall quiescence of these films might just do the trick:

    Days of Heaven (Malick)
    Into Great Silence (Groning)
    The River (Renoir)
    The Straight Story (Lynch)
    The Werckmeister Harmonies (Tarr)

    @cinesimon:,@HI:

    Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev is my single favorite film. As you say, all his films are ravishingly beautiful but do place uncommon demands on viewers’ attention.

  54. 54.

    khead

    @sb:

    Thank you for helping me lose 25 minutes of my life. When I wake up tomorrow I will waste even more thanks to this link.

  55. 55.

    wasabi gasp

    @Mnemosyne:

    but he just lets it go because adding more pain to the situation is only going to make things worse.

    I thought that was the best scene in the movie.

  60. 60.

    RaflW

    Off topic but I’m happy to see this tweet

    PublicPolicyPolling ‏@ppppolls
    On the first night of our Kansas poll 10 people said they had a favorable opinion of Westboro Baptist Church, 641 a negative one

  61. 61.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne: I thought the dealing with family tragedy part of it was done really well. The selling-the-land part just didn’t work for me. There didn’t seem to be any reason why they couldn’t delay it a few days or even weeks because of what happened to his wife. I understand that they had some sort of deadline with the trust, but the urgency of the deadline (like, “it has to be decided by tomorrow”) wasn’t clear.

    I thought a lot of the scenes were very realistic and some of them were excellent, like the one you mentioned. I didn’t think the movie as a whole hung together well.

  62. 62.

    patroclus

    @Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Yeah, Mountains on the Moon is a good flick too! Speke almost gets killed and loses the use of his leg at the beginning, but then he goes off hunting Livingston and it’s really very interesting!

    @Violet:The Descendants is really good for death and dying behavior and for environmental protection. Very subtle and Nick krause is a scene-stealer.

    But, you know, even if John takes one of our suggestions, it doesn’t feel like we’re really winning anything at all – more like spinning our wheels. Now, if he offered front page privileges for a day to the winner, it might be worth something!

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @Violet:

    Fair enough. I think his decision was supposed to be existential, but I agree that part of the plot didn’t quite work, especially given the big buildup. I wonder how the same scene plays in the novel.

    @WaynersT:

    I was looking at some of the IMDb trivia and it looks like it’s one of those things that really only works well when you see it on the curved Cinerama screen at full size. Basically, it was the IMAX of its day, except that the IMAX folks have been smart and mostly kept it to nature documentaries and such while they tried to make some fiction films using Cinerama.

    If you noticed the seams (and who didn’t?) it was because it was both shot and projected with three cameras that overlapped slightly.

  70. 70.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne:

    I just watched The Descendants the other night and spent 3/4 of the movie in tears. So, if you want to go to bed with a tear-drenched pillow, go for it. (There may be some personal shit going on there).

    At the moment I am watching Hangover 2 and laughing a lot. My best friend is asleep on the futon in my room, so I am stifling myself.

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    @dance around in your bones:

    I have an urge to watch it this weekend, but maybe I’ll wait until I need it as a fire-break.

    (In her really great book God Said, “Ha!”, Julia Sweeney talks about a day after her brother’s death when she started crying and couldn’t stop, so her friend took her to see The Bridges of Madison County. She kept crying right up to the point where everyone else in the theater burst into tears, and then stopped. She calls it a fire-break for her grief, like when firefighters set a forest fire to stop one.)

  76. 76.

    susan

    Departures

    I agree with this recommendation. I watched Departures over a year ago, and it is still with me. It is a beautiful and moving film.

    Also:

    Saraphine:

    “Awestruck by the vibrant and imaginative artwork of uneducated housekeeper Séraphine Louis (Yolande Moreau) — who spends her days doing menial chores — German art critic Wilhelm Unde (Ulrich Tukur) takes the promising painter under his wing. Though her neighbors and others dismiss Séraphine’s work, Unde is determined to turn the obscure French artist into a star in this revelatory biopic also starring Geneviève Mnich and Nico Rogner.”

  77. 77.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne: I like the idea of a firebreak.

    I saw the film of the play of God Said “Ha!” and it was brilliant. There’s a bit of it here – specifically “Letting go of God”.

    Hmm – may have to turn off Hangover 2 and get down with Julia.

    eta: just realized this is from another of her shows – see what trying to type in the dark does to you? (trying not to disturb my sleeping friend)

  78. 78.

    Violet

    @Mnemosyne: I wondered about the novel as well. I felt like there was a really great movie in there somewhere, but The Descendants wasn’t it. I was really looking forward to it, as I have a great appreciation for Alexander Payne’s films, especially “Sideways” and “Election.”

    Like I said, I thought parts of it, especially certain scenes, were excellent. I thought all the acting was good. I thought the difficult subject matter was handled well. I just felt like it was an okay movie holding a great movie hostage. It was all there. It just didn’t happen.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @dance around in your bones:

    Actually, they’re two different books/performance pieces — she did “God Said Ha!” in the late 1990s when she was still a believer, and did “Letting Go of God” about 15 years later after she became an atheist.

    They’re both really great pieces (G and I listened to the audiobook version of “Letting Go of God” on a long car trip) but some people get the two books confused and are surprised/pissed off that she talks about her belief in God in “God Said Ha!” because she lied to us, she said she was an atheist!

  81. 81.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @piratedan:

    Hahahaha!

    I think my buddy Ed and I were the only people aside from critics to see this in a theater. A few years later I was working at a record store that started renting videos. I recommended TABB to a lot of people, who’d return it either very happy or very confused- mostly the latter.

  82. 82.

    handsmile

    @piratedan:

    Surely you can’t be suggesting that this is a film any sentient being could “fall asleep to”!

    The credit sequence alone is as pure an adrenaline rush as anything in cinema.

    A work of genius, and one of my very favorite movies. “Laugh while you can, monkey boy!”

  83. 83.

    Anne Laurie

    @tatateeta: I loved The Gift, agree it was underrated, but IMO a smalltown psychic caught in the middle of a violent murder mystery is not a good-to-fall-asleep-to movie!

    Probly too late tonight, Cole, but if you can deal with subtitles, Patrik 1.5 is a quiet little movie whose three leads are funny & annoying & touching in three very distinctive male ways, prickly & clueless & needy & sometimes clownish. The story’s got enough twists to keep you distracted from the noises in your head, but is broad enough that suspense about the ending won’t keep you awake.

  84. 84.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne: You are completely right – I realized my mistake after I linked that bit….oops! (a la Rick Perry)

    My friend is snoring like a logger – she caught a cold from the local germ factory (i.e., the grandkids). And this typing in the dark thing is a PITA.

  89. 89.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @piratedan:

    Damn. I never knew that Richter made BTILC…It makes so much sense.

    ETA: Or was it Earl Mack Rauch, or however ya spell his name? I know that the two of ’em had a history going back to Dartmouth.

  91. 91.

    elspi

    How about something upbeat?

    Atonement

    Pan’s Labyrinth

    The English patient

    (ok that last one is kinda an acquired tast, but the other two I am not even ashamed of).

  93. 93.

    Tokyokie

    Hodejegerne is a stylisth thriller from Norway. And if you don’t want to go to sleep, then try I Saw the Devil from Korea.

  95. 95.

    rodnchance

    The best boring film and the book it originated with is:
    ‘Out of Africa’. If you can stay awake after the first page or the first 10 min of the film I’ll be surprised. It is important to know that nothing ever happens.

  96. 96.

    nastybrutishntall

    Lunopolis. Streaming flick I had never heard of, a found footage time travel scifi. Not gory, but has some nice moments of creepiness. Your dreams will be more interesting.

  97. 97.

    Jacquie

    I’m quite late and rather sure you’ve already slept, but next time, maybe try the Coens’ version of “The Ladykillers.” I enjoy it but it still knocks me out almost every time. A friend also used to use “The Cooler” for the same purpose.

  98. 98.

    Pappy G

    This Is England – I recommend using the subtitles.

    Stephen Graham is Bob Hoskins, Russell Crowe, and Brando rolled into one brilliant, menacing fireplug.

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