American History X

I was engaged the whole way through, though I'm not convinced this movie was right in the head. Its white supremacist arguments were too refined, and its lesson was too muddy.

It set up an interesting dichotomy of explicitly arguing for white supremacy in the dialogue, while experientially arguing against it. I assume the point was that the actions speak louder than the words; that the anti-racist arguments conveyed through dramatic storytelling overpower Norton's racist barking. The trouble is, for people who are analytical or not very empathetic, like me and probably most white supremacists as well, the words speak louder than the actions, at least in this movie. In other words, this movie has better arguments for white supremacy than against it, in my mind. So what's the point of the movie?

Sure, bad things happen to the white supremacist in the movie. But bad things happened to Jesus, and that didn't scare anyone away from Christianity. In fact, it probably scared negative 1 trillion people away, so far. So is Derek a martyr for a noble cause? Or are we supposed to take his eventual misfortune as karma for his sick values? I don't think it's clear. I mean I know what I think, but I don't think the movie is clear enough to shield against slightly racist people actually getting more racist when they watch it. Sometimes words speak louder than actions. Think about how people cling to specific Bible verses more than the spirit of Jesus' actions. Or how one poorly written tweet can ruin a career otherwise defined by upright action. This movie dwells on Derek's propaganda, and tries to do a good job of conveying what his arguments really would be. And it does a good job. His arguments are probably better than his opposers'. He's also a sick bastard, but that doesn't tend to stop anyone from gaining a following, if they're persuasive enough, and Derek is persuasive. I don't believe his arguments, but I don't see why the movie had to make them so persuasive anyway.

Also, are we supposed to feel sorry for him in the end? Sympathy for the devil? It kind of seems like it, but why would the movie do that? Also, what turns the white supremacist around -- getting raped and also meeting a fun black guy? Is that realistic? I don't think so; he's too gentle with Lamont from the start, based on how his character acts up to that point; and the "rock bottom" shower scene isn't rock bottom enough to actually bottom out his racism. I don't buy it -- I think the movie sketches an arc of redemption and karma but doesn't really sell it.

That said, I liked the movie. Solid entertainment.

Superman (2025)

Antidirectional to the Pattinson Batman initiative, this DC outing seems to be even sillier than Marvel. I only watched about half of it, but the tone was so airy that I couldn't feel anything. Interestingly, that's the same and opposite problem I had with The Batman, which was so bleak that I couldn't feel anything. Superman is so colorful that no one is human and I don't care, The Batman is so gray that everyone is doomed, thus I don't care. Why is DC doing such opposite things at the same time? Aren't we all trying to unify brands these days, creating branded universes so we can incessantly force-feed the same old stuff to the masses? I'm confused about DC's identity; maybe they are too.

Of course, despite all of this, part of me wants to finish the movie. I doubt I will though -- it's so empty for me.

Kanye Last Song Standing results

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzo9_tZBQLE

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haa8WGrjwlA

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8X2tcNutGk

Kanye Last Song Standing

The plan is to do a Last Song Standing episode, in the spirit of the Dissect podcast, with Lucas in which we nominate Kanye songs from various albums, put them in a March Madness-style bracket, and find the last song standing. Here's my documentation of my nomination process.

4/4/26: College Dropout

We Don't Care (5)

All Falls Down

Spaceship

Jesus Walks (2)

Never Let Me Down

Get Em High

The New Workout Plan (4)

Slow Jamz

Breathe In Breathe Out

School Spirit

Two Words

Through the Wire (1)

Family Business (3)

Last Call (6)

If I had to pick today, I'd kill New Workout Plan and Last Call. The former is surprisingly fun, the latter was an old favorite of mine, but neither shines brightly enough. Family Business is a personal one for me, so it's tempting to kill. We Don't Care was never a highlight for me personally, but it stands taller than something personal like Family Business. I'd have to sort through the influence of Jesus Walks and try to map the quality. I never liked Through the Wire when I was growing up, but now I feel like it's so iconic that he's rapping through the wire; "they can't stop me from rapping" is such a Kanye thing.

4/5/26: Late Registration

Heard Em Say (3)

Touch the Sky

Gold Digger (2)

Drive Slow

My Way Home

Crack Music

Roses

Bring Me Down

Addiction

Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)

We Major (1)

Hey Mama

Celebration

Gone

Diamonds from Sierra Leone

Late

4/6/26: Graduation

Good Morning

Champion

Stronger

I Wonder (1)

Good Life (4)

Can't Tell Me Nothing

Barry Bonds

Drunk and Hot Girls

Flashing Lights (2)

Everything I Am (3)

The Glory

Homecoming

Big Brother

Good Night

4/6/26: 808s

Paranoid (2)

Street Lights (1)

4/6/26: MBDTF

Dark Fantasy

Gorgeous (4)

POWER

All of the Lights (5)

Monster (3)

So Appalled

Devil in a New Dress (2)

Runaway (1)

Hell of a Life

Blame Game

Lost in the World

4/7/26: Yeezus

On Sight

Black Skinhead (1)

I Am a God

New Slaves (3)

Hold My Liquor (4)

I'm In It

Blood on the Leaves

Guilt Trip

Send It Up

Bound 2 (2)

4/8/26: TLOP

Ultralight Beam (2)

Father Stretch My Hands Pt 1 (5)

Pt 2

Famous

Feedback

Low Lights

Highlights

Freestyle 4

I Love Kanye

Waves

FML

Real Friends (6)

Wolves

Frank's Track

Silver Surfer

30 Hours (4)

No More Parties in LA (1)

Facts

Fade

St Pablo (3)

Also: Violent Crimes

Albums:

1. TLOP
2. LR
3. MBDTF
4. Graduation
5. College Dropout
6. Yeezus
7. 808s

Okay so TLOP has way more crap than LR. But it also has many more glorious moments. LR is more consistently strong; it's classic all the way through. TLOP is so fragmented. But LR doesn't deliver so many amazing moments. LR only offered a few songs for this project; TLOP offered 10. So it's a question of sane classic status vs bipolar glory. LR is more subtle and measured like the sermon on the mount, TLOP is just basking like the resurrection.

So my wild card options are:

• Heard Em Say
• Everything I Am
• 30 Hours
• St Pablo

Some things are more fun to recommend than to experience. They're like someone handing you a flyer on the street like "here, you throw this away." Dogtooth and Antichrist are fun to talk about and convince someone else to watch. Everyone has War and Peace but no one reads it.

Alien

I expected more than thrills from Alien. Science fiction has a philosophical connotation to me, but Alien, unless I missed some symbolism, was just a thriller set in space. It borrowed aesthetics from 2001 but none of its pondering. Yet what a thriller it was! I liked the bleak direction: for a lot of the horror, there was no music or even screaming, just panting and sweating. Weaver toward the end was a marvel in her desperation. I also particularly liked Bilbo's performance -- for someone playing a robot, he may have acted more humanly than anyone else! That's good acting for 1979. Unfortunately some of the effects showed their age -- the alien itself, the explosion of the ship, the severed head -- but a lot of the effects were surprisingly effective, like the early form of the thing when it's on Kane's face, and what spills out of Ash, etc. There was some bad dialogue, but more awesome intensity than I expected for a movie from the 70s. How did Kubrick manage to control the cheese so well in 1968? Largely by avoiding dialogue, and avoiding entertainment -- entertainment ages faster than art. What's humorous or cool to the mainstream fades fast by its very nature. Humor and a sense of cool are inherently transient. Kubrick skipped both, dealing just with humanity's biggest questions and with clean, brutal visuals. So his movie ages better than almost any other sci fi. Alien kept some of that brutality though, so I'm pleased to say I enjoyed it all these years later. I just wish it had dealt with more interesting ideas, if I am to watch any of the others in the series.

I tend to think of classic sci-fi as either philosophical or allegorical. It's just a genre that ages so fast, unless it lean heavily on timeless ideas. Star Wars leans too much on visual effects, fun ideas, cool style, personality, humor, and enough basic stimulation to sell out theaters. Now, I think the story of Star Wars cuts some classic arcs, but it's leaning too heavily on these other things which age so fast. If sci-fi is typically supposed to be an exciting glimpse of the future, it by definition ages quicker than other genres focused on the past or on timeless ideas. Its speculation and special effects go outdated so fast. 2001 dodges this by focusing on themes that have persisted throughout human history, and by austere visuals as opposed to hovercraft races and laser guns, and by minimalism instead of personality. It's less massively appealing in the year it's released than Star Wars, but it ages better. The old Star Trek series are an interesting case of aging terribly in terms of technical achievement, but aging gracefully in terms of thematic content. They knowingly eschewed big-budget effects and focused on almost stage-like situations. I'm speaking pretty ignorantly though... I haven't seen much Star Trek and I really haven't seen much sci fi in general. 2001 aged the best, Alien aged pretty well because it's minimalistic in a lot of ways, Star Wars aged worst because it rode the heat of the moment. Interstellar probably won't age very well, though I love it right now. Even now I know it's so cheesy. Maybe it'll be one of those classics that nobody really enjoys anymore, come 2050. Nobody except my generation. I expect Nolan movies to go that way in general -- beloved by my generation, cheesy to all future, even if they're still technically known as classics.

Logan

I heard rumors this was much grittier and subtler than most superhero movies, but after seeing it, I don't think the disparity was huge. The R rating helps -- violence and language can make you take a superhero movie more seriously. And it wasn't bad. But it still felt like a superhero movie, or some other sort of basic action movie. The formula and tone were still there. It was good enough to inspire me to want to see other X-Men stuff (I've seen basically none), but not to inspire me to actually believe that I should watch any of those movies. Like, I want to experience the wonder of Charles' mind, but I'm confident it carries too much baggage for me to seriously consider watching any more X-Men movies, especially knowing this is deemed the best of em. If this is the best of em, then X-Men is probably an artistic desert. But I'm always a little susceptible to cinematic candy, and superhero movies press that divinity button.