Patrick R

I've never played the New Super Mario games, but what the hell does Mario say in Super Mario 64 when you select a quest and enter a level? It always sounds like "Payco" to me. What is "payco"? EDIT: jump to 0:30 in this video. Is he saying Peggle?

Best part of the start of Season 2 is the way all the monster of the week episodes are connected to the ongoing story of the X-Files being re-opened and the introduction of Deep Throat's replacement. The worst thing is that the actor who plays Deep Throat's replacement is lame. Also, I found this really good article about how Darin Morgan totally changed the show over the course of 4 episodes he wrote.

This is definitely not an uncommon opinion but in 2's defense, 1 & 3 take place in real working locations whereas 2 is narratively meant to take place in a fake place, functioning entirely as a training ground.

I think overall this was a very weak year (and also there were a lot of films I didn't see), but I still found 10 movies I really liked. My top 10: 1. The Illinois Parables (dir. Deborah Stratman) - An experimental documentary in eleven chapters, about the history of Illinois (and by extension, America) as the history of people being crushed by "progress". But also more humor and weirder than that description does it justice. Great music choices. The only film that came out this year that challenged the way I thought about film. 2. The Witch (dir. Robert Eggers) - Perfectly told horror story, one part tradition and one part dazzlingly original. Scared the shit out of me. 3. Son of Saul (dir. László Nemes) - I have some misgivings about how this is structured (it's essentially "Holocaust: The Ride"), but this was one of the most moving films I saw this year and it's unique formal approach (most of the film is a close-up of the main character's face, with the horrors out of focus in the background) had a dual purpose of overriding the numbness of seeing a barrage brutal images onscreen and a tacit admission that we can't really witness the horrors of the Holocaust from a film, we can only eke out their meaning via the margins. 4. The Lobster (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) - "In the beginning, we had to be very careful not to mix up I love you more than anything in the world and We're in danger." One of the funniest and most original movies I saw this year. Second half is a comparative letdown, but this is a savage satire on sex and dating. 5. Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins) - Completely lovely, sad, literary film. I was worried when everything I heard about it had to do with the newness of it being about a gay black man (because that part isn't new at all) but I was wrong because this is very fresh regardless. 6. Mustang (dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven) - Turkish coming of age film that depicts blossoming womanhood as a warzone, with five sisters huddled together like soldiers in the trenches. Except also very warm and doesn't ignore the joy of childhood either, and especially how important that joy is when you know it won't last forever. 7. O.J. Made In America (dir. Ezra Edelman) - It had a theatrical release, it counts. Edelman takes one of the most over-reported events of the 20th century and finds a compelling thesis that argues O.J. got away with it because he was both white and black. This is definitive but also this gets points taken away for cropping 4:3 archival footage to 16:9 (with some truly hideous results) and for succumbing a bit to sensationalism in it's final chapter. 8. Everybody Wants Some!! (dir. Richard Linklater) - I've seen this three times and I could watch it again right now. It's not quite the hang-out movie Dazed & Confused is (it lacks the same emotional wallop) but it's damn close, and that's very impressive. 9. The Love Witch (dir. Anna Biller) - Insanely faithful recreation of 1960's sexploitation films, with only just enough of a wink to play as a loving feminist parody of the genre. Truly one of the most baffling achievements in film this year. So many films these days try to emulate the aesthetic of the past (the Oujia sequel this year went as far to include fake cigarette burns between "reels", despite it being shot and presented digitally) but Anna Biller is a next-level genius at it, capturing even the editing rhythms. Your mileage may greatly depend on your connection to exploitation history and paganism. 10. Hush (dir. Mike Flanagan) - Just a top to bottom well-made horror thriller. I really like home invasion movies and this was a very well-made one. Almost nothing original about it (even it's central conceit, that a deaf woman doesn't know there's a man in her home stalking her, is mostly irrelevant after the first half-hour) but I enjoyed the hell out of this. Honorable Mentions: The Handmaiden, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, My Golden Days, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and Nice Guys.

Man, Space really is the worst episode. At one point a NASA scientist uses the word "guesstimate".

Apparently the Wire is much more egregious, as that show had the option to go to 16:9 early on but opted not to, as they wanted to keep the general ratio of surveillance footage for the show. They never intended any of it to be seen widescreen ever, and you get a lot of boom mic shadows and stuff of that nature in the HD 16:9 cropping. According to this blu-ray review, the X-Files was always shot with safeties in mind, meaning they composed for 4:3, but also secondarily for 16:9 (meaning no shadows or equipment in the widescreen frame) because they wanted to go to a more cinematic widescreen as soon as they could, which ended up being season 5.

Oh gross, they cropped X-Files to 16:9 on Netflix. Why do people keep doing this? Why are people so dumb that they think if there's any black anywhere on their screen they're MISSING OUT. Why is this the worst of all possible worlds. Luckily I have the DVDs, but I was hoping to just throw the show on so it could auto-play while I cooked dinner. Thank God for physical media or all our art would be subject to the whims of the corporations chasing dumb people's money.

Due to the tonal changes from episode to episode (especially later on as the direction got more bold), the lack of callbacks to other MotW stuff, and Scully's increasingly ridiculous incredulousness, I tend to watch X-Files as an anthology show more than anything. For me, most episodes exist in a world identical to ours except for The One Weird Thing The Episode Is About and also Aliens. The other episodes didn't happen, or at least, happened in a vague fuzzy way an unspecified length of time ago. Just another way the show improves if you just skip all the mythology episodes, it removes the cumbersome sense of continuity.

This sounds awesome, I can't wait to watch the stream.

I may just have opposite taste from you (especially if you loved the first season) but, as I'm sure everyone's told you, the mythology ends up being a total nonsensical dead-end, and I think the only reason X-Files is still remembered fondly is Duchovney and Anderson's incredible chemistry and all those monster of the week episodes. If it makes you feel better, the general upswing in quality all around in Season 3 is remarkable and you'll get a lot more nuance, character, bold art direction, humor and meaning out of those kinds of one-off episodes through season 5. I am sorry that an episode about a group of Satanic teachers did nothing to you. For some of that early stuff you gotta put your brain in 90's mode, when people were still afraid of the occult and there was still a slight transgressive edge to the blunt way The X-Files depicted it. Same with a lot of the violence.

I think the tension between the highly (or perhaps just wiki) researched and grounded military tech speculation and the ninjas and dino-mechs is where the series' narrative wildness comes from, and I think that reaches a peak at 2. Once you get to 3 the whole tone feels more camp. And from what I understand (which is admittedly little) 4 goes full anime he said knowing full well someone would tell him he's using the word anime wrong.

MGS 2 is where it's at.

Coherence is a movie about a group of people who are so destroyed by paranoia and the fear of the Other that they create the worst possible universe with no way of turning back. Maybe felt a bit relevant in a different way this viewing.

I enjoyed this episode even though it definitely sounds like a book that isn't for me.

Not in 1, 2 or 3. Dunno bout the rest of the series but I doubt it. They aren't Sierra adventure games, they're pretty linear.

What a fun game. Pico-8 seems like a pretty cool thing.

This was a lot of fun. An interesting idea, communicated well. And there was even enough wiggle room for when I screwed up to just book it and make it to the end of the level. Good good stuff!

This game is hella stylish. So cool! There are definitely bugs if you move too fast, but given the message at the start. Not sure I really understand the rules of the game, but I could finish some levels.

Beat Rogue Legacy again. Took about half the time I did the first time. No real reason I replayed, it's just a good "zone out, listen to a podcast, don't think about anything" game.

Just started watching this, finished part 1. I've never played any Dark/Demon Souls or Bloodbourne but there are a lot of things Nick does that make no sense to me. Souls are like EXP, right? So why does he keep trying to run past everything when 1) it keeps killing him and 2) he's denying himself a chance to level up? Is there something I don't understand about the game or is he just being silly?

This is very complete and a lot of fun. I wish the movement speed was a little faster and that humans could get a little closer to the hole before falling in, but once I got the hang of things it felt very doable.

Yeah, the separate game and jam pages is so weird to me.

Fallon is America's RA.

Really like the presentation a lot, but you should definitely mention on the Jam page that this requires a controller. I was able to navigate the menu with mouse and keyboard fine and enjoyed a lot of story and then when Nick starts mentioning the left and right stick and bumpers, my heart began to sink.

Love the presentation but I had no idea what I was supposed to do at all gameplay-wise, and immediately got overwhelmed. Left click to open a menu feels WRONG somehow, because as someone who didn't know the rules my first instinct was to try to click everything.