David Lunch

Renate Reinsve films dated for 2024:

A Different Man
An insecure actor finds a miracle cure for his facial disfigurement, only to be upstaged by a stranger who oozes self-confidence despite (still) having the exact same condition the main character had once allowed to hold him back.

Handling the Undead
If zombies weren't so fixated on eating our brains, perhaps they'd be poignant to have around: semi-living, semi-breathing semblances of people we've loved, there to be seen and held and talked to, not truly present but not absent either.

Another End
In a near-future, a new technology exists that can put the consciousness of a dead person back into a living body in an attempt to ease the grief of separation, providing a little extra time to say goodbye.

The worst person in the world has a type.

Adam Riff™ Clip of the Week

3. Gravity Kills (The Curse, S01E10)


Honourable Mention

  • Love and Biscuits (Fargo, S05E10)

Stray Observations

  • </The Curse, S01>
  • ♫: Unions – "Rescue Me" (True Detective, S04E01)


(Fargo, S01E10)

  • </Fargo, S05>
  • ♫: Alex Brightman and Erika Henningson – "Hell Is Forever" (Hazbin Hotel, S01E01)
  • ♫: Blake Roman – "Poison" (Hazbin Hotel, S01E04)
  • ♫: Keith David and Blake Roman – "Loser, Baby" (Hazbin Hotel, S01E04)
  • "Do you remember when you were a little girl? You used to cut the hair off your Barbies?"
    "Yes?"
    "You used to cut the Black Barbie's hair off first to see how it looked."
    "Oh, come on. Are you serious with that?"
    "And then if you liked it, then you'd cut the white Barbie's hair. So you're a little racist too, Blaire."
    "Wow, that is weirdly so much more damning than anything else today."
    "And it started when she was very young too."
    "Are you guys for fucking real right now?"
    "I mean, that is some sick Nazi doctor shit right there."
    "Did you?"
    "What?"
    "Did you cut the Black Barbie's hair first?"
    "Fine, yes, okay, I cut the Black Barbie's hair, yes. I was eight years old, okay? I didn't fucking know any better."
    "What was the Black Barbie's name?"
    "I don't remember."
    "Oh, it gets even worse!"
    "Oh, my God, she can't remember the Black Barbie's name."
    "But I still love both Barbies equally."
    "And separately?"
    "Yeah, yeah. What was the water fountain situation like at the Dream House?"
    "Yeah, was there like a special entrance for the Black Barbie?"
    "Look…"
    "Oh. Did you call it the 'I Have a Dream House'?"
    "A-ha!" (Ted, S01E01)
  • "If you don't come with me, I will tell her you masturbate to network television."
    "You motherfucker."
    "I will tell her you watch Full House so you can jerk off to Lori Loughlin, but that you can't always predict how long the scene is, so half the time, you ejaculate to an establishing shot." (Ted, S01E01)
  • "This could be the day I start being cool."
    "Yeah, today is the day you told a girl you had diarrhea. Don't put too much weight on today." (Ted, S01E01)
  • "Get to class now."
    "Um, 227 sucks balls and so do you."
    […]
    "Okay, now, you know I didn't mean that. I just needed a reason to be dragged in here."
    "Look, you can trash-talk me, Ted, but nobody throws shade at Pearl Shay." (Ted, S01E01)
  • "All right. Let's get some sleep. We jerk at first light." (Ted, S01E03)
  • "I-I can't use this."
    "Why not?"
    "It looks like Bob Ross. It is. It is Bob. This is Bob Ross."
    "Well, you're a tough fit, pal. It was either him or a pair of UGG boots."
    "Oh, yeah, laugh it up now, but pretty soon, I'll be having an orgasm next to my friend."
    "Yeah!" (Ted, S01E03)
  • "Ah, yes. This looks like a good, non-sexual film."
    "Oh, yes, I have heard many great, non-sexual things about this movie."
    "Peter Travers calls it 'a sex-free laugh riot.'"
    "Time magazine says, 'about as erotic as mom's diarrhea.'"
    "The fuck?"
    "What?"
    "The fuck was that?"
    "What do you mean? I'm just expanding on your thing."
    "That's not what I was doing."
    "Improv's all about 'yes, and…,' okay? You can't just shut me down like that in the middle of a scene."
    "Don't do 'mom's diarrhea' and then tell me how I'm fucking supposed to do improv. Jesus Christ." (Ted, S01E03)
  • "Okay, tomorrow, when everyone's out, we search the house."
    "What if we don't find it?"
    "Then we'll have to rent the same movie from another store and return it to the first store and we'll have to do that every three days until the end of time."
    "Oh, my God."
    "Yeah. Like a Pornzi scheme."
    [laughter]
    "Yeah, we're in trouble, but we can still have fun with words." (Ted, S01E03)
  • "And we put a bit of that into every bar of Irish Spring."
    "This whole ad campaign is a bluff."
    "What do you mean?"
    "It's like, you know who smells good? The Irish. Yeah, a guy named Seamus Boyle smells great." (Ted, S01E04)
  • "Is that Winona Ryder fucking Lion-O?"
    "That is Winona Ryder fuck…yeah. I gave her a ton of bush. I doubt she has that much bush in real life, but that's the beauty of art, right? It can be anything we imagine it to be."
    "His dick is a sword."
    "You'll never guess what his sword is."
    "Is it a dick?"
    "A dick."
    "Yeah."
    "It's a dick." (Ted, S01E04)
  • "There are no junior proms when you're an adult. You miss this one, that's fucking it. The rest of your life is spending all day breaking your back, and all night standing at a toilet, peeing in Morse code." (Ted, S01E07)
  • </Ted, S01>

Adam Riff™ Clip of the Week

2. Skate or Die (Echo, S01E03)


Stray Observations

  • "Remember, it's like we always used to say: We're so good on paper. Paper covers rock." (The Curse, S01E09)
  • ♫: Village People – "Y.M.C.A." (Fargo, S05E09)
  • "Now, honestly, what's the point of being a billionaire if I can't have somebody killed?" (Fargo, S05E09)
  • </Echo, S01>
  • </Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, S01>

1:1:1 Chipotle to Chick-fil-A to Crumbl ratio

What?

Once banned in China, Stephen King's The Shawshank Redemption had its much-anticipated debut as a stage play in the country's tech capital Shenzhen on Jan. 4

Adding to its unusual status, the play is performed in Chinese by a cast of Western actors who are based in the Middle Kingdom.

We are not talking enough about the Chinese stage adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption starring expats in China.

The picture has had a bumpy history in China. While the original was made at a time when China had few modern cinemas and was importing minimal numbers of Hollywood films, it was later given prominence and played as the closing title of the 2005 edition of the Shanghai International Film Festival.

But, following the real-world escape from house arrest by blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng and the U.S.-China diplomatic incident that followed, online searches for "Shawshank" were blocked on the Chinese internet and social media in 2012. The film's anti-authoritarian leanings may also have fed into the temporary ban.

We did not talk enough about China banning online searches for "Shawshank" after a blind lawyer escaped from house arrest.

The new stage adaptation aims to move beyond that and portray a message of hope and endurance.

Zhang says he has translated the story's western narrative into a unique cultural context for China.

"While play is still set in Maine, the characters all speak fluent Chinese and there is a blend of Chinese cultural ideas and phrases throughout to localize it for the Chinese audience."

We are not talking enough about the adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption in which everyone in Maine speaks fluent, colloquial Chinese.

A Serious Breakfast

Idea: Film Awards Season Survivor Pool.

Instead of teams, you select category winners.

You cannot repeat a category or its equivalent, so if you select an "Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture" for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, you cannot later select a "Best Picture" for the Oscars.

The gauntlet, in order:

Gotham Awards
New York Film Critics Circle winners
National Board of Review winners
Los Angeles Film Critics Association winners
National Society of Film Critics winners
Golden Globe Awards
Critics Choice Awards
Directors Guild of America Awards
British Academy of Film and Television Arts Film Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Film Independent Spirit Awards
Producers Guild of America Awards
American Society of Cinematographer Awards
American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards
Writers Guild of America Awards
Oscars

If you survive until the Oscars, you should know what will likely win, but will any lay-ups still be available to select?

The guild awards force you to be strategic.