I adore the Manchurian Candidate. It's up there with The Lion in Winter for the Fucked Up Films I Love Award.

I have never seen Newsies. However, I've seen Velvet Goldmine often enough (I've owned it for five years) to half-expect my Batman to put on eyeliner and masturbate to pictures of Ewan boykissage.

Though I'm not sure how much of that's Velvet Goldmine, and how much is an overdose of Batfic.

Hee. Frankenbuddha is so very much me on Leigh's Rosie. The idea of her being another handler is enchanting, but I would cry if anyone involved in the film actually said that this was in fact so. Her weirdness, deadpan slyness, and quiet sexual and romantic confidence were iconic to me, one of the defining images of someone who owned (in her quietly whack-ass way) the pleasures of adult womanhood. I never wanted to be a teenage girl or a giggly postadolescent, but God, did I want to be her (still do, pretty much). And God, do I not want her to be part of the conspiracy.

Loved MC (still haven't seen the remake). Liked Newsies a lot.

It worked for me, but if he hadn't ended the movie the way he did (with Sam Jackson letting Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer go, and what he said to them when he did) it might not have had as big an impact.

What Frank said about Pulp Fiction. That last segment of the film really brings it all together for me. Not that I didn't like that film up until that point, but the ending (middle) sequence just brought everything right back together.

Still, I think that, to date, Reservoir Dogs was by far Quentin's best film. No other movie has left me quite so speechlessly horrified at the end of it. Carpenter's The Thing comes closest.

Both those things kind of lend some creedence to the horror theory.

Though I'm not sure how much of that's Velvet Goldmine, and how much is an overdose of Batfic.

I was about to say, you needed Velvet Goldmine to make that image seem feasible?

Still, I think that, to date, Reservoir Dogs was by far Quentin's best film. No other movie has left me quite so speechlessly horrified at the end of it. Carpenter's The Thing comes closest.

See, for me, more and more, it's been JACKIE BROWN that I think is the best. Certainly it's his most mature. And as horrific as the ending of RD is, I prefer the quiet, tragic melancholy of Robert Forester not being able to let himself run of with Pam Grier, even though he desperately wants to. Apples and oranges, I know, and my preference probably has something to do with getting older.

No other movie has left me quite so speechlessly horrified at the end of it.

The Vanishing. (The original Dutch version, 'natch.)

I was about to say, you needed Velvet Goldmine to make that image seem feasible?

So I assume this is not a good time to discuss Bale's work in EMPIRE OF THE SUN?

Certainly it's his most mature

What I love about this is that he basically made it that way to prove he could. He knew full well that Jackie Brown was the kind of film he was expected to start making 20 or 30 years into his career, and so just to stick it to people, he decided to make it, in his own words "Right the fuck after Pulp Fiction."

It's a marvellous piece of filmmaking and a giant Fuck You to his reputation all in one. I love it.

The Vanishing. (The original Dutch version, 'natch.)

And Hec nails it in one. I actually physically shuddered. It wasn't the scene in the coffin that got to me, though that was creepy, but the very quiet, benign scene afterwards. Not bad for a movie where the only violence is a punch thrown by the protagonist.

See, for me, more and more, it's been JACKIE BROWN that I think is the best.

Oooh, yeah. Good point. And I think I tend to gloss it over because, as Jess said, it was a film he should have made much later in his career. Jackie Brown is definitely his best film, but RD gives the most emotional gut punch.

The Vanishing. (The original Dutch version,

There's another one. Thanks for reminding me of that one, Hec.