The struggle

was more fun than the victory.

You and I know that we're already in trouble.

All we get to decide is what kind of trouble we want to be in.

I consider laughter

preferable to tears.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit,

while genius hits a target that no one else can see.

Tony couldn't fly.

Tony died.

Your brainwaves

bother me some!

One-act play.

MOTHERFUCKER YOU AIN'T FROM THE SOUTH YOU FROM SOUTH AMERICA GODDAMN YOU MEXICAN AS FUCK IM JUSS PLAYIN NIGGA LAUGH ITS FUNNY WHY AINT YOU LAUGHING YOU FROM ALBURQUERQUE MAMA SAYS THASS WHERE YALL JUMP THE BORDER I AIN'T MIND IT AT LEAST YOU AINT MUSLIM NIGGAS BLOWIN UP SHIT DON'T MAKE NO KIND OF SENSE GO PICK ME AN APPLE BITCH.

Shit don't change.

Shit just get rearranged.

It may cost you some money,

but it'll save your soul.

Fighting

for the right to be wrong.

Shake off

death.

I know I am,

but what are you?

Backing

the wrong feeling.

I can't keep devils and demons locked in no jail.

Paranoid Park.
8.5/10. An incredibly tense movie about forgiving yourself. As with 'Elephant,' which I loved, Gus Van Sant's got a great ability to turn simple themes into thrillers. The other end of the Danny Boyle spectrum, where Van Sant tries new tricks and can put things together awkwardly, but there's a more consistent sense of taste.

AH-WHOA-WHOA, THE WEARY KIND.

Crazy Heart.
5/10. Maggie Gylenhaal doesn't show her breasts. I wasn't a huge fan of 'The Wrestler,' but this movie succeeds in making me pine for the type of allegory found in that movie. Namely, that some careers simply don't allow for a comeback, and that maybe some people simply don't deserve it. This one's not nearly the level of a fuck-up. This one seems to be afraid of saying anything interesting.

It used to feel like a big ocean.

Below.
7/10. There should be more submarine-based horror movies. Tense and claustrophic by nature of its surroundings, a 'who knows what?'-mystery and a 'what the fuck is happening to us'-horror. Sometimes it gets cheap, both with CGI and certain thrills, and there are some connective scenes missing that seem to accidentally create new, unnecessary mysteries, but there is a very solid, very interesting movie inside the capsule.

Furious styles.

Boyz N The Hood.
7/10. Unabashedly an 'American Graffiti' for the gangster-rap set. As with that movie, it does a great job of setting a moment in time (re: Tre's shirt), but it also feels not new, probably by nature of every movie that came out afterwards that tried to say the same thing. I don't think they said it as well as Doughboy puts it at the end, but it'd be nice if one of these movies talked about what got us there, rather than where they got, and where it leads.

I am the backbone of colonial America.

Choke.
4/10. The blonde girl from 'Community' shows her boobies. Completely amateurish, up and down, and I'll put most of the blame on the director. Poor transitions, unnecessary flashbacks, speeding through lines, not dwelling enough on things that could be interesting, Sam Rockwell not being pushed. Points being telegraphed, and then not even being very good. That might just be Palahniuk, though. 'Fight Club' was a stylish movie that wasn't as deep as it would have liked to have been. This couldn't even be stylish.

You must use friendship.

Gentlemen Broncos.
6.5/10. A milder 'Napoleon Dynamite,' in that it's less memorable, and less annoying. I don't think anyone grew in this movie. A bigger story arc gets lost in tangents, so it doesn't really build any momentum. But it's okay. Sam Rockwell's tranny amuses me.

Treat fucking Williams.

127 Hours.
7/10. I think it comes down to Danny Boyle just kind of fucks around too much. He's got this kitchen sink style of making movies, where he wants to throw a lot of different things at us, but only sometimes are they interesting. He's got this great ability to create emotional crescendos, as with everything from the cutting onwards, and a handful of scenes beforehand, but he tries so many different techniques in the course of keeping it interesting that a certain amount of drama is lost.

I don't like that guy. That guy that holds the cup with one hand, with two hands...

Real Life.
6.5/10. Ahead of its time. The first movie to mock reality television, when at that point there was only one, two reality television things that had existed, and I think 'Spinal Tap' could have gleaned a certain level of influence from it. It's interesting.

Zartan.

G.I. Joe.
5/10. They made Snake Eyes look stupid. That… I feel like that would have been a harder thing to do. Stephen Sommers' ability seems to be being able to make big, dumb movies that at least realize they're big and dumb. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Cobra Commander. Rachel Nichols is attractive.

I'm beginning to think my being courteous is getting in the way of my being effective.

Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call - New Orleans.
6.5/10. There was the promise of a certain amount of crazy that wasn't delivered nearly enough. It's a surprisingly straight movie. That's not a bad thing. Just kind of a boring thing.

Timothy Leary's dead.

Men Who Stare At Goats.
6.5/10. The fun comes through the absurdity of the idea. When it tries to be clever aside from that, whether through wordplay or physical comedy, it tends to falter. The bad guy from Avatar is a surprisingly good comic actor.

The spice must flow.

Ink.
4/10. This movie got some attention because the makers released it through the torrents and the torrent-folk downloaded it. It's some sci-fi fantasy shit about people who give good dreams and people who give bad dreams. It looks awful and is stupid. Thank you.

The same things that float your boat

can capsize it.

God bless you

and keep you safe.

A rational

cell.

The 6 inches in front of your face.

Any Given Sunday - 5/10.
There's a five-minute speech in the last quarter of this that, in isolation, makes you think this movie is worth watching. It ends up being about too many things to make that five-minute stretch be the perfect encapsulation of anything. Lose everything about that-actress-who-smiles and Randy Quaid's star-whacker brother, give Al Pacino more of a history, make Jamie Foxx's racism rants come from anywhere but out of nowhere and it might be okay.

We need a fucking hero.

Observe and Report - 7/10.
This was fun. It's trying to be 'Taxi Driver' and I think it mostly succeeds. Anna Faris is great in everything and, in contrast to 'Funny People,' Seth Rogen doesn't embarrass himself. Makes his hero something approaching sympathetic. Way to act, guy.

Where'd you get that negro, Butch?

Crimewave - 6.5/10.
Honestly, *not that bad.* Sam Raimi's first studio production (from a Coen Brothers script) and disowned by him as apparently the studio didn't trust him to make his own decisions. But what follows is a wild Hudsucker Proxy-esque Three Stooges clip. Everyone is having fun and I think at least most of it was intentional.

Foreigners are fucking crazy.

The Happiness of the Katakuris - 6.5/10.
Genre-bender by Takashi Miike. Horror, comedy, musical, etc. Musical's probably the worst genre for having subtitles attached. At its best when it's being inventive and seemingly making shit up as it goes.

Why are you crying, happiness?

Hausu (House) - 6.5/10.
Old Asian horror. A wild, wild ride. Foreigners are fucking crazy.

The reductive power of the close-up.

Froxt/Nixon - 8/10.
An incredibly enthralling movie about a conversation. Thriller-like, in that you know what's coming until you start to think it won't arrive.

This way, it's poetry.

The Commitments - 7/10.
The thought that a little bit of hope, once entertained, is hard to put back is a great one. But too many songs turn it boring. Otherwise, the best version of 'Dark End of the Street' I've heard.

Bird-doggin' chicks.

It's Kind of a Funny Story - 6/10.
A certain amount of built-in charm that gets fucked up by saying too much. Thinking you're worse off than you are is a nice thought to build a movie off of, but it gets lost in the idea that everyone can be saved if we just clap our hands to the beat.

Every creation myth needs its devil.

The Social Network - 8/10.
In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurred. Comparisons to 'Citizen Kane' are apt, as it is pretty much the story of 'Citizen Kane.' Plays it even keel. Mark Zuckerberg doesn't come off as a good person, but neither does he come off as anything other than someone who wanted to make something great. Ignoring the obvious, I think it ends up being a movie that defines the times more because it kind of builds a definition of who is the rightful owner of an idea – whoever can pull it off. It's not the songwriters that tend to get famous, baby doll, it's the singers.

It took a city like New Orleans

to kill a man like Johnny Thunders.

The rich kids sing

the poor kids' songs.

Who considered his home

as being everywhere.

To school an intelligence,

and make it a soul.

The older you get,

the more you kinda just get forced into being who you are.

An America,

at every level at war with itself.

In order to be what you want,

you got to do what you want.

Whassup, world.

My name is Sway.

Holler, female,

let's read two separate books in the vicinity of each other.

Yo, girl, I'm an intelligent man,

why don't you give me some of that strange stuff.

It's a nice piece of work, Kingpin.

You shouldn't have put your penis on it.

I conclude

that all is well.

And there,

annoyed by an obedience so contrary to human love.

The absurd hero who lives life to the fullest,

hates death and is condemned to a meaningless task.

'Everything is permitted'

is not an outburst of relief or of joy, but rather a bitter acknowledgment of a fact.

Does the realization of the absurd require suicide?

Camus answers: "No. It requires revolt."

If we could read the secret history of our enemies,

we'd find in each man's life a sadness and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

When we do right, nobody remembers.

When we do wrong, nobody forgets.

You wouldn't download

a drug.

I tell you the truth,

whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

God pity the poor sailors

out at sea on a night like this.

A lot of words

that don't mean anything.

Good night,

thrill seekers.

Secrets with this one.

The Town - 6.5/10. It all rings just a little bit stock. Solid and at-times tense, but it never feels important. 'Gone Baby Gone' was a detective story about taking responsibility for what comes after doing the right thing. 'The Town' is just a fucking heist movie.

Fuck it.

We'll do it live.

Testing 1

Testing 2

Don't forget, tomorrow's Earth Day.

Easy A - 8.5/10. Genuinely sweet and genuinely funny. I feel like I should probably say more to convince you that it's worth your time, but I'll leave it there.

A friend made this.

A GIRLFRIEND! HEY-O!

Sweet by design.

Book design. An attempt to win an iPad. By my girlfriend and I.

Director of pee-versity and in-poo-sion.

Improvised hatlery.

Long Jacob is long.

Pregnant women are smug.

Last House on the Left (remake) - 6.5/10. Rape, by JC Penney. Well-groomed henchmen terrorize family, including girl who was not the girl from 'Gilmore Girls.' Easy moral decisions are made. Never a fan. But the blonde half of internet comedy duo 'Garfunkel & Oates' shows her breasts. So okay!

Rosh Hashanah Montana.

Jennifer's Body - 5/10. Diablo Cody writes stupid. Also: doesn't understand tension or how to build a story.

Stuck between the right thing,

and the fun thing.

Stargatin'.

Tired of all that star... hatin'...

Saturday morning

pop songs.

Class

tourism.

Folder on my desktop.

A mysterious new project??? Only time will tell!

West yelled, at no one and everyone,

"Nigga my screen is 13 feeeeeet! Don't talk to me!"

That duck

is an asshole.

Experiment #1

Experiment #1

Snow Fight.

Whip It - 6.5/10. Lost in time. Not great. It's fine, I guess. It's a fine movie.

The existence of God

and the quality of the soul.

I will pause to consider this eternity

from which the subsequent ones derive.

Today,

good taste is often erroneously rejected as old fashioned because the ordinary man, seeking approval of his so-called personality, prefers to follow the dictates of his own peculiar style rather than submit to any objective criterion of taste.

God damn

and the Son of a Bitch.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs - 8.5/10. The best Saturday morning cartoon I've ever seen. Wild, wild, fun. Madcap. Constant motion, a parade of jokes, beautiful characterizations and character design. The emotional moments aren't its strong point, but it seems to understand this and undercuts them with jokes or by simply shuffling on to the next set piece. I loved the fucking shit out of this.

The truth is, everybody is going to hurt you,

you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

I've made failure

my focus.

My girlfriend made this for me.

If I was telekinetic.

I don't know. I'd probably just jack off all day.

It's okay.

I prefer to not know what it's like to not be in awe of the stars.

Like like like like like like

love.

He was drunk and exhausted

but he was critically acclaimed and respected.

It's not that I don't like you.

It's just that I ain't like you.

Any circle

holds my heart.

Getting blazed in my winne.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - 7/10. A lot of things happen in a short amount of time. There's an admiral quality in that. It's a fun movie and, this may be me being an idiot and wanting too much from things, but there's a weight to the comics that is lacking in the movie. They stuff the emotion in at the end and it's simply not enough. I enjoyed the movie, but I don't care about it. I continue to have a huge crush on Chris Evans.

It's so fluffy.

Despicable Me - 4.5/10. It's hard to describe what's so bad about this. It's really well-done, technically, and the jokes aren't bad, per se, they simply don't work. It's a lot of time and attention put into something that isn't very good, and that bothers me.

How do you feel, Chicky Baby?

Man, I feel electric.

You gotta love living, baby.

Dying's a pain in the ass.

All the dragons in our lives

are perhaps just princesses.

Art?

No, no, no. Just a t-shirt.

Your fingertips trembling,

though they may be.

Forgiveness

is for anyone who needs safe passage through my mind.

Forgiveness

is release from all hope of a better past.

Stop

fucking with shit.

South Dakota

don't give a fuck.

Art exists

because reality is neither real nor significant.

You don't

have to figure it out.

Living

just to keep on living.

I want to find a place

where the words to the songs are true.

Secret of NIMH - 6/10. Characters, character-interactions are great, but they're bound to this abundance of plot that keeps propelling them to the next thing to the next thing, and nothing's dwelt on, and things come out of nowhere and I still love you, Don Bluth.

You smart, ain't you.

Well.

You're so evil and I'm so good.

I'll make it up to you some day.

When France is mine and I am yours,

then yours is France and you are mine.

An instance

of beginning.

The future belongs

to the hobbyist.

Which is why I have to steal it.

Inception - 7.5/10. More complex than it needed to be, less imaginative than it could have been. A less fun 'The Matrix.' Christopher Nolan is incapable of joy. Oh, but it was captivating.

Aye, so I hear.

The Three Lives Of Thomasina - 6/10. Bright, easy, 1960's Disney. 'The Gnomemobile,' et al.

Butt

Huggin'.

To give,

as before.

Forgiveness.

Forgetting on purpose.

Some aspect of responsibility

the rest of us have failed to assume.

So long, partner.

Toy Story 3 - 9/10.
Cried like a *fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking* baby. Best picture of the year. Honest with itself, without any of the cynicism that implies. A movie about how people should be.

Hungry people are not afraid of prison.

Collapse - 7.5/10.
I don't doubt what Michael Ruppert says as true. It may very well be the case. But because of who he is, what he says, and most importantly, how he says it, he can't help but come across as alternately a pessimistic crackpot who is sometimes right, or a welcome martyr, giddy at being able to say 'I told you so.' The movie camera ends up being the equivalent of the one person who would listen. As an exposition on the end of the world, it's effectively depressing, but it's almost better as a case study of a lonely man.

Pissed off and curious.

The Insider - 8.5/10.
As near as I can tell, the best movie Michael Mann's ever made. Russell Crowe is a bit clunky, but Al Pacino is wonderful and justifiably angry. One of the best thrillers I've seen, and there's hardly a gun involved. Almost punk rock in its convictions? I don't know what that means. Makes me want to run for office or something. On fire with energy.

Until your heart stops.

Twilight: Eclipse - 6/10.
Two-to-three times as good as the others. Things make up a stupid kind of sense. People seem to be in on the joke. Bella stops biting her lip. Ends up being exciting and interesting in parts. Other parts still just stupid.

If I keep listening to it, I won't finish the revolution.

The Lives Of Others - 8/10.
'The Death of Captain Marvel' was a Marvel Comics OGN about the tragic end to one of Marvel's premiere cosmic heroes, not at the hands of Thanos or Galactus or The Beyonder or whoever, but by something as benign and uninteresting as cancer. As he reflects on his life and his great trials and tribulations, I could hardly give a shit until his friends came to say goodbye to him on his deathbed. In the span of two panels, Spider-Man, who had been absent the entire comic, walks into the room before suddenly running out, crying. And while I did not grow up with Captain Marvel and didn't care if he was coming or going, Spider-Man cared, and because Spider-Man cared, I cared. … I don't know why the Policeman cared about the Writer or the Actress, I don't know what they said over the course of his listening that made them compelling enough for him to break, but he breaks, and he cares, and because he cares, I care. Their are some emotional connections that are missing in the course of getting to the movie's conclusion, but fuck it, it gets there. Slow and patient like 'Hunger,' but, oddly, with a less sympathetic hero who I'm made to care more about. … "Can anyone who has heard this music, I mean truly heard it, really be a bad person?"

We have to go.

I am almost happy here.

If you knew how you are loved,

not one of you would raise a hand in rage again.

We left,

because it had to have sucked a little, right?

I've no interest.

I've no love affair with the past.

A perfect man

who kills.

The medium

loves itself.

Sometimes it seems

we'll touch that dream.

I wrote these words for everyone

who struggles in their youth.

The idea

that a person with an understanding of the ideals associated with a particular belief system they identify with must wholly embody those principals in every aspect of their daily life does a disservice to the kind of internal dialogue that's even necessary to determine why it is you feel the way you do to begin with.

Sorry about that, Chief.

Get Smart - 3/10. I like the TV show. This blows, though.

We've always had a strained relationship.

Funny People - 6/10. Adam Sandler does a great job being himself. It's unfortunate they had him play second fiddle to Seth Rogen, who publicly humiliates himself for the duration of the movie. Doesn't develop naturally. Forces things. Emotions and stuff. Jason Schwartzman plays the same character from 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' and I like that a lot about him.

Scattered.

Fried Green Tomatoes - 6/10. Exploitative fluff. Didn't cry.

Yes means everything.

No means nothing.

Here in the few remaining moments we have left,

just what do you propose we say in our defense?

Here

there be pies.

It's easy to be enigmatic

when you don't know what you want.

Eventually, you must pick a side.

For simplicity's sake.

Some of us fracture.

Others simply deform.

Sometimes you've gotta break shit

to make shit.

You can't market 'Murderball' to corporate sponsors.

Murderball - 7/10. Bros wheelchairing bros. Builds to a few emotional climaxes, none of which it is able to achieve. Otherwise entertaining.

People are dying and we can save them.

That ought to be enough.

Like a poot

being squeezed out in a vacuum.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Was not enough, she wanted more.
5, 6, 7, 8.
Left her with a stomach-ache.

You can give them life,

but you can't make them interesting.

A bunch of metaphors

in a cornfield.

Saving it

makes it boring.

I used to encourage everyone I knew to make art; I don't do that anymore.

Exit Through The Gift Shop - 8/10. Art is easy. Meaning, that's the bitch. Entertaining, mysterious, and manages to make more than a few salient points about art, street art, the art world, what is good, and who gets to decide it.

There is nothing like a war

for the reinvention of lives.

We fit perfectly together when we dance,

this person I do not know.

BP redesigns.

For the Greenpeace contest, 2010

And then suddenly, as the old saying goes,

we got ourselves a game.

Forgive the intrusion, my lady –

I did not intend to offend your eye.
For I am vile, loathsome creature
and I have crawled in here to die.

Drop 'bows,

not bombs.

MAN IS BORN WITH RAINBOWS IN HIS HEART

AND YOU'LL NEVER READ HIM UNLESS YOU CONSIDER RAINBOWS.

You know what happens when you been drinking?

You forget all the rules.

Rules

been weighing on me.

As long as there is a criminal element,

I’m of it.

The sewer lines run under this neighborhood, too.

Saw - 4/10. Great idea, poor execution. Should be continually remade until it gets it right.

Baby, you should know.

Orphan - 3/10. Poor idea, poor execution.

Before you know what kindness really is,

you must lose things.

Since when does age create gigantic waves and storms?

Since forever, honey.

So even if the cards are cold and marked by the hand of fate,

play up, play up like a gentleman and a sport.

It is amazing how brave you can be when you have no choice.

Also, I am on a lot of drugs.

If you gonna please everybody,

you gonna need the devil.

Keep your heart, 3-stacks,

keep your heart.

It's by doing whatever,

that one becomes whoever.

An attempt at logo designs.

Panorama people.

Gifs.

Work drawings.

Boob Marley.

Route 66, what the fuck.

If you don't support gay marriage,

don't chew Juicy Fruit.

- Juicy Fruit

I start with the simple idea

that advertising is theft.

They gotta tell you somethin'.

Monster - 8/10. Everyone does a real nice job. It looks and feels like it was made in the early '90's. I guess that's a compliment.

A war of escalation.

Get Him To The Greek - 8.5/10. A constant one-upmanship against itself. Seconds or minutes seem to be cut out of every scene that give the whole movie this wonderful sense of momentum. It's really very good and funny and both of the relationships in the movie approach real, or my preferred version of real. As an aside, I'm tired of movies extolling the notion that the people who seem really happy and live life to the tits-end are secretly very lonely and it's us poor plebeians who make hard decisions about love and life and finances that are truly bless-ed indeed.

Ready, spaghetti.

Set to go, daddy-o.

Be kinder than necessary,

for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

We hold these truths

to be f-ing obvious, bro.

The problem is thinking it was yours.

Nine - 7/10. Unfortunately a musical. Daniel Day is poor as a stereotype. But then there is Marion Cotillard, who is just the purest thing. Cut around the bits that aren't about her.

If men designed the American flag.

Wherefore rejoice heavens, woe to earth and sea.

Drag Me To Hell - 6.5/10. Reveals Sam Raimi's strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker. When he's stuck in a room, he is just a doll at creating a sense of claustrophobia and and impending craziness and the same scenario almost seems to force him to be inventive and fun. See: Evil Deads 1 and 2, which this, at its best, resembles. But he can't make it travel well. When he goes outside of a confined space or does anything that just serves to do something as simple as propel the plot forwards, it's... kind of like he gives up? Like he doesn't see the fun in it. It has to happen, so let it happen, just get me where I want to go. Where's my next set piece. He seems to say. With the way he makes movies. You get me? Couple that with a leading lady who isn't enough of an idiot, and you've got a movie that's too often boring.

EB, where you at?

I'm still here, mama. I'm still standing.

Mud man approaches young girl curious for career advice.

Why I love comics, Vol. 2-ish.

Notes?? On my hand???

Notes on my hand.

Everything is broken,

no one can fix it.

The proper relationship

to fiction.

One swell bear.

The Jungle Book -7/10. Don't tell anyone what they can't be, but you can't be anything more than what you are. These early Disney movies have more of a moral in their songs than they do their whole.

They said not to cross the river,

boy.

He regards the soul

as being a mixture of fire and water.

But other people fail to notice what they do when awake,

just as they forget what they do while asleep.

He had taught himself

by questioning himself.

The good.

The object of knowledge.

Because there is a fire called discovery burning within me

and I won't go back in the cave for anyone.

Speak truth

to power.

Don't crowd a man

at his own wake.

We gladly feast

on those who would subdue us.

You can't step twice

in the same river.

We ain't goin'

study war no more.

Nothing here now

but the recordings.

Picture in a magazine.

My facebook group.

The Way Your Butt Smells.

9 hours online.

9 Hours Online. from molluskbrigade on Vimeo.

2010.

Martin Luther Badass.

2010 print ad concept.

Pool party!

2007 design.

Barreling

towards a conclusion.

Everyday monsters.

Insane Clown Posse figurines.

First in a series. I wish I were kidding.

Faygo and The Great Milenko logos to come.

Reference:

Works in progress.

Figured I'd do this shit, too.

This is a series where I compare Glenn Beck to Hitler. I am not what you would call 'subtle.'

New blog!

Hey, guys! I'm extending the freemarketresearch empire!

Please visit Your Daily Cry if you are prepared to cry like the bitch that you are.