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Do the Contrarian (Part I)

The Pale Man knows how to do The Contrarian. He sits motionless until an external stimulus prompts him into motion. There's a brand new dance That's easy to do It's called the Contrarian And it's all about you! Strike a…

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Odds and Ends Beginnings for 2007

View image Frances Bean Dog. I'm back from break but hopelessly preoccupied because my eldest dog Frances had a couple lumps on her back foot and I had to take her in early this morning for a surgery/biopsy. This talk…

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The Double-Best of the Year

The Pale Man sez: "Use your eyes -- both of 'em!" The forthcoming "Grindhouse" notwithstanding, the motion picture double bill is a nearly dead art. Marquees have always been plugged with twosomes that just happened to be from the same…

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Moments Out of Time 2006

View image "Brick": The third shot of the movie. For 35 years, on and off, critics Richard T. Jameson and Kathleen Murphy have annually assembled a montage of memorable impressions from the year's movies in a feature called "Moments Out…

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Judd Apatow on Comedy 2006

This is a very funny man. A commentary on The Year in Comedy from Judd Apatow, the co-creator of "Freaks and Geeks," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and... Seth Rogan: It seems like comedy is more popular than ever right now. There…

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1. Ten 2. Best 3. Lists

There is none so blind as he who will not see. It's true. Ray Stevens sang it in the hit single "Everything is Beautiful (In Its Own Way)." I have no idea why I just mentioned that. MSN Movies has…

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'50 Lost Movie Classics'

From the opening shot of "Cutter's Way" -- my favorite movie of the 1980s. ... and speaking of critical "best of" movie lists, here's a swell one called "50 Lost Movie Classics," from The Guardian. I might quibble with the…

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Happy Listmas! Year is Over (If You Want It)

"'Pan's Labyrinth" is the best movie of 2006. Right? Of course I'm right!" I don't disagree at all with Andy Horbal's list of reservations about annual critics' "Ten Best Lists." Andy (host of the recent, too-marvelous-for-words Film Criticism Blog-a-Thon), sizes…