Pop Culture
- Some scenes are hilariously absurd. Peggy skating to Roger’s piano in an empty office, Megan singing Zou Bisou Bisou, Ken losing an eye to client idiots.
- Other scenes are iconically great. The Carousel pitch tops the charts.
- The songs at the end of every episode are all worth listening to at length. Here’s the Qobuz playlist with the full collection.
- The acting and the cast are all top-notch; with special credit to Elisabeth Moss.
TIL “Uptalk”. It reminded me about this excellent comedy skit with Ron Livingston about frying voice, and that it was coming from the Loudermilk show. It has joined my watching queue.
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Watched: A Real Pain
I really enjoyed it. At one point, I was worried the movie might take a dark turn, but it didn’t. Overall, it was moving but lovely. It captured feelings I can relate to. Kieran Culkin was fantastic. I learned after watching the movie that he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. No kidding! I also didn’t know Jesse Eisenberg directed films; he seems quite good at it.
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Watched: Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair
I wasn’t much into it until the last episode, that got me. It was both hilarious (Craig), and touching (with kudos to Vaughan Murrae’s acting). A timely ending to my Malcolm late discovery.
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Watched: Zootopia 2
Really good. It may be a bit too similar to the first one, as it addresses the same themes and employs the same narrative techniques. However, it is beautiful, features many good jokes, and its fast pace caused me to miss some hidden details. This might make it rewatchable. I recommend it.
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J’ai profité d’un post hommage à Dolly Parton (quelle femme !) pour glisser dans Dead Rooster un petit oeuf de Pâques. Amusez-vous à le trouver en écoutant The Moldy Peaches. 🥚
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Watched: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
It was my first rewatch since the DVD era. It was like I was watching the opening scenes for the first time. Kudos to two decades of image improvement. I found the movie as good as ever but watching it with my kids, I realized the pace might be too slow for this new generation. On the bright side, it was fun to see how good my son is at Cinema Sins.
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Ten years late to Mad Men
Finished watching Mad Men.
It was the follow-up to Breaking Bad in my project of watching TV shows from ten or fifteen years ago that appear to have passed the test of time. This one earns the claim.
Breaking Bad ran on plot; you watched to find out what happened next. Mad Men runs on character; you watch to find out who these people are. I’ve always thought of The Simpsons as a sociological show – I catch myself describing people I meet in terms of Simpsons characters. I suspect Mad Men will be my next instrument and will do a more subtle job of describing adults involved with power dynamics, ego, and the flinch right before someone says the thing they can’t take back.
Random notes:
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Finished watching Malcolm in the Middle. A little less than two years after I started, I am done watching all 7 seasons. It was a lot of fun. 🍿
Rooster S1
Finished S1 of Rooster. I couldn’t resist a Steve Carell comedy, especially one produced by Bill Lawrence (Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Bad Monkey). Overall, it’s a decent show with plenty of lovable characters and heartfelt moments. However, the comedy doesn’t quite hit the mark—my biggest laugh came from Carell mimicking motorbikes and the disciplinary council scenes, which isn’t the best indicator. My recommendation: watch it if you’re a fan of Carell or Lawrence; otherwise, it’s not essential viewing. 🍿
Connemara, 2025 - ★★
Grosse déception.
J'avais beaucoup aimé le livre, de Nicolas Mathieu, d'une part, et j'avais beaucoup aimé Guy, d'Alex Lutz, d'autre part. Mais le slam dunk attendu s'est transformé en airball. Ça joue bien mais le montage est haché, la fin trop abrupte, et les ellipses sont trop généreuses. Certaines scènes me seraient passées complètement à côté si je n'avais pas lu le bouquin.
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I love Letterboxd. This morning, the website is down and this is what it shows. It makes me love it even more. 💻 × 🍿
Shrinking S3
After a few episodes of season 3, my wife and I were grateful to hang out with Shrinking’s characters again — but also surprised by how few real conflicts they faced. Conflict usually drives a story, yet here it barely surfaces. When it does, mid-season, it feels almost incidental.
Shrinking deals with conflicts at the opposite end of the spectrum from something like Seinfeld. Every internal struggle is discussed in the open and solved quickly, as opposed to a new drop in George Costanza’s already overflowing bowl of agitated anxiety.
It’s almost a literal feel-good show, with sharp fast-paced dialogue, a terrific ensemble cast — Harrison Ford leading the regulars, with the addition of personal hall-of-famers Michael J. Fox and Jeff Daniels — that you watch losing count of both laughs and tears.
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Austin Powers in Goldmember, 2002 - ★★★
The opening self-parody works. Mini-Me becoming Mini-Austin is hilarious. Michael Caine is brilliant. The mole scenes with Fred Savage are memorable. 20-year-old Beyoncé is already a star. 🍿
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, 1999 - ★★★
I will state the obvious: silly but funny overall. The Mini-Me introduction and Scott on the Jerry Springer Show work, and Heather Graham is charming. 🍿
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, 2026 - ★★★
No surprise: a solid film from the always-reliable Illumination Studios. It’s a crowd-pleasing fan-service ride packed with lovable characters, strong music cues, and well-placed nostalgic nods. The plot is predictable, as expected.
The 3D + Dolby screening was pricey, but we had Chandler & Joey–style recliners, which made the premium feel worth it.
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TIL La biographie de Jean Chalopin ressemble au scénario d’un Serge le Mytho.
Une récente édition de la newsletter de l’INA propose son portrait, qui le décrit comme « le papa d’Ulysse 31 et des Mystérieuses Cités d’Or ». Dès la fin de cette vidéo, j’ai plongé dans le trou de lapin, qui m’a amené à découvrir qu’il avait ensuite contribué à sortir la Gaîté-Lyrique de l’abandon pour la transformer en parc d’attractions, Planète magique, fermé après seulement 12 jours d’ouverture (et qui fait l’objet d’une vidéo de la chaîne Arkeo Toys). Il était récemment président d’une banque aux Bahamas liée aux cryptomonnaies.
Sortez le popcorn et allez-y.
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Another act of genius by XKCD! Which do you prefer, “Grayscale mode” or “Greyscale mode”? 🍿 × 💻
I just got RickRolled by this link from the New York Times’ Morning newsletter. I wonder what that says about me. 🐟 × 🍿
Mr. Popper’s Penguins, 2011 - ★★★
Not as bad as I feared it would be. I chose it on a strong impulse to introduce Jim Carrey to my kids, while dismissing The Mask as potentially too violent, crazy, or scary for them. The film is quite predictable, but it offers good ideas—the phrasing of Pippi Pepenopolis topping the list—and, of course, it will make you tear up at the end. And — I had totally forgotten this —, one of the writers is no other than Sean Anders, who has written and directed some of my favorite comedies of all time. 🍿