Some of the tachskrieger’s favorite films are The Glazer, about the bastardization of the Edward Durell Stones’s 2 Columbus Circle (lots of flame throwers in that one); Out Go the Lights, in which they totally destroy Mies’s Seagram Building solely with kung fu; and the early German talkie Flachesdachzerstörer, which has a big shootout between adherents of Weimar inflationary economic policy and a rogue NSDAP fiscal conservative at the Weissenhofsiedlung.

The title of the International—the International—is even intended to connote International-style architecture, isn’t it? It is. That’s why Emily had to eat the International bank. Its flat roof—representative of the lower orders of people—must be purged from the canons of architecture! Also, it’s made of cheese.

I have seen Clone Wars.

Don’t see Clone Wars.

I guess I am. Here’s what’s happening now. Verne Troyer just announced that Uwe Bowel beat out Uwe Bowel (AMPAS being AMPAS loved In the Name of the King and didn’t understand Postal), and now Tom Putnam’s accepting for Paris, and now they’re just showing 88 Minutes. All of it.

Also, I totally agree with everything you say (and am shocked that I, Bob, Adrienne and Jason have not seen Clone Wars). I had no use for Kantian maxims until I was sixteen, and ET beat out Blade Runner for effects. I mean, Blade Runner was, well, Blade Runner, and ET was a puppet. People get pissy that Gigi beat Vertigo but ET was a goddamn rubber doll with a glowy digit. So I typed out the Categorical Imperative, neatly, on 3×5 cards, and sent them to all the Academy members. Unfortunately, I sent them to all the members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences (what did I know of the difference?) and got back many letters from Nobel laureates, Pulitzer winners, civic and corporate leaders, scientists and mathematicians, and they were all incredibly apologetic.

Back to 88 Minutes. Leelee is also nominated to ITNOTK and I’m pretty sure she’s going to have to cut herself in half to win both, a la aspiring starlet Elizabeth Short, who won for that De Palma film, right? Wow, that’s complicated.

Instead, SBF deadpans “Your vagina is diseased.”

Don’t tell me Goyer didn’t scribble “Suck it, Mankiewicz” in the margins next to that.

I actually think they did a pretty good job with Rachel, though it’s not totally my kind of film. You may be right though about the self-awareness. Maybe people need to be more into doing the movie for fun. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - more Bruce Campbell’s, less Peter Berg’s.

To me, there’s a new trend going on with these modern loose films, and that is a complete sense of self-awareness. If you go back to films like The Celebration, nobody had any idea what they were really doing. Now that more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon of spontaneity fishing, not only has the aesthetic language has been completely pre-defined, but the performances are self conscious (as there are many examples for comparison). In the end, no matter what the style, it’s all still make believe, and I suppose it’s far more impressive to me if the intent is assured and developed through and through versus simply doing an admittedly great job at creating a scenario for actors to play.