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That’s marginal to me. Doesn’t do anything for me. I rather hear something more profound. There have been much better closet picks. I am a fan of his otherwise

I was being hyperbolic, but yeah this was a fun one.

Bad Santa is in town...or rather Terry Zwigoff's Closet Picks (which he wishes were 78 vinyls instead)

And this, for example, is a perfectly fine video that is neither really funny or memorable (aside from finally seeing Zwigoff in the flesh in what seemed like forever, good to see he is in good health!).
Does this mean a possible Bad Santa or Art School Confidential blu in the works?

Are we having fun yet? Adam Scott wanders the corridors of the closet.

dda1996a wrote: Tue Aug 25, 2026 8:04 amTerry Zwigoff's Closet Picks

Does this mean a possible Bad Santa or Art School Confidential blu in the works?

brundlefly wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 6:05 am Adam Scott wanders the corridors of the closet.

Obviously this is for Art School Confidential, an absolutely titanic masterpiece atmospheres better than Ghost World. Bring it on.

Art School Confidential (IMDB 6.3/54) is the weakest of Zwigoff's films, Bad Santa (IMDB 7.0/70) would have been better.
(Crumb 8.0, Louis Bluie 7.6, Ghost World 7.3)

Can we please not start employing IMDB scores in our arguments?

domino harvey wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 7:26 pm Can we please not start employing IMDB scores in our arguments?

Agreed. It's not a good indicator of a movie's true quality. Equinox was has a 5.2 imdb rating and that's one of the best films in the collection.

dda1996a wrote: Tue Aug 25, 2026 8:04 am Bad Santa is in town...or rather Terry Zwigoff's Closet Picks (which he wishes were 78 vinyls instead)

I posted this back in April, but when Zwigoff was in town then to do some Q&A's at Film Forum, Bruce Goldstein mentioned at one Q&A that he and Zwigoff both visited Criterion earlier that day and got to visit the closet. Goldstein also teased Zwigoff about never looking at the camera, and he apparently interrupted the shoot to make him aware of that.

The Q&A's were actually great, among the best I've attended.

domino harvey wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 7:26 pm Can we please not start employing IMDB scores in our arguments?

Agreed:

Jerome: "You were right about art. It's all about the cock-sucking."
Jimmy: "It's not what you do, but who you blow."

Will this be Ethan Suplee's first flick in the "collection"?

"Skanks make up fifty per cent of the audience!"

Maladroit Aggregator wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 11:51 pmWill this be Ethan Suplee's first flick in the "collection"?

Of course he has a bit part in Chasing Amy.

domino harvey wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 7:26 pm Can we please not start employing IMDB scores in our arguments?

Is there another way in determining if a film is good or not? I still haven’t found one.

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2026 3:36 pm

domino harvey wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 7:26 pm Can we please not start employing IMDB scores in our arguments?

Is there another way in determining if a film is good or not? I still haven’t found one.

Watching the film.

Is IMDB considered a better aggregate to Rotten Tomatoes? I never look at either, but now I’m curious.

All sites have ratings from a limited subculture of the general population that have nothing better to do in life than rate films. If anyone is influenced by these kinds of people then god help us all.

For clarity, I was joking. I think all platforms based on quantifying art via scores should be dismissed and ignored.

But aren’t they also aggregating professional critics?

Do we have a thread on judging films by a collective rating system vs. depending on individual reviews yet? I would argue that it's an important discussion & that "quantifying art via scores" is already being done by all (ie. the yearly mini lists) whether you recognize it or not. With the amount of content being produced these days, it's become more important than ever to have some way of thinning out what one is going to watch. The history of film making has produced more than any one person can tackle in their lifetime. I agree that there are problems with IMDB (as with Yelp, bookings.com,etc.), the biggest being its purchase by Amazon, but it is the site that has been around the longest & therefore has the largest number of ratings. Particularly for older titles, a larger sample size ensures a more accurate result (an N= 10k is better than an N=1 to make a decision) -though newer films are more subject to vote rigging. While I might not agree with specific ratings for individual titles (ie. that Shawshank Redemption is the greatest film ever made), I do find it helps to weed out what I should focus my remaining time on the planet to watch vs. what I can skip.

I give it a 28.7 for the ending voila!

I just wait for the year-end Film Comment podcast where their editors and critics shit on the poll results.

(Not entirely joking, you can hear for yourself.)

black&huge wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 8:29 pm

domino harvey wrote: Sat Aug 29, 2026 7:26 pm Can we please not start employing IMDB scores in our arguments?

Agreed. It's not a good indicator of a movie's true quality. Equinox was has a 5.2 imdb rating and that's one of the best films in the collection.

Seconded. Little Odessa has a 6.7, Terrordrome a 5.2, The Shout a 6.5, etc etc.
saying that Bad Santa should be favored due to mass popularity is rather ironic given the themes and subject matter of Art School Confidential.
Art School Confidential is an underappreciated brilliant art house satire that doesnt score as high due to its more niche audience and doesnt have a heavily supplemented release; the 2018 bluray just has a quick interview and some deleted scenes. I have an art degree (which i do use) and this is on my top 5 favorite films along with Ghost World. Adam Scott might be my favorite part of the movie, I bring up his little monologue in convo every now and then.

Kracker wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2026 4:00 pm Art School Confidential is an underappreciated brilliant art house satire that doesnt score as high due to its more niche audience…..Adam Scott might be my favorite part of the movie, I bring up his little monologue in convo every now and then.

Jim Broadbent is flat-out brilliant in this. His scenes are the best parts of the film. Adam Scott’s one scene is the next best thing in it. It’s not as revered or beloved as Ghost World because it doesn’t have near the character or thematic depth, it’s less visually appealing (no Affonso Beato this time around), and Minghella is a very weak lead.

I still like it and would purchase a Criterion release. Also hoping a 4K upgrade of GW is in the works.

She was here in July to promote her new film Montreal, My Beautiful at the New York Asian Film Festival at Lincoln Center. Too bad the timing didn't work out where Chen could've been in town the same time as Stanley Kwan. (I think they missed each other by about two weeks, but it was also Kwan's first visit to NYC in ten years.) I'm sure they already know each other, but still would've been cool.