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Been seeing that White Lotus --- a show that I have never had much interest in --- scene and it is reminding that Sam Rockwell is a cold ass actor. I'm happy that he is floating on the timeline again because he is a very good actor. Here is a guy who can turn a character into something insanely memorable by pure charisma and weird charm. Now, he won the Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and while that movie is sometimes frustrating, I do think it is a good portrayal of anger at social class that is manifesting itself --- or possibly just because of it --- towards hatred of identity groups. Rockwell is very good in it, getting the better of the showy McDormand performance. But, to me, I hated that he won the Oscar portraying such a dodo bird. He had played such cool and interesting characters -- he even becomes a weirdo as Hammer in Iron Man 2 --- and he understood how to be sly and dopey while still maintain a kind of honest mentality that made people want to root for him in every movie. He's better when he isn't pudgy, isn't striving; in a way, he is a comedic actor at best.
Watch Moon, where he plays a lonely astronaut in space. He is also great in Richard Jewell as a sympathetic lawyer. Character actors like Rockwell deserve publicity, especially when they're doing something unheralded.
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Hi Jayyyyy what a beautiful little piece of writing! I agree that his physicality is such a part of the impression that he makes as an actor. X
He reminds me of a theater actor with his intense nature. The golden age type of actor like Pacino in dog day afternoon
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I was watching White Lotus with a friend and she said she didn’t know who Sam Rockwell was so I pulled up a reference that she would immediately recognize (also don’t we all love Sam Rockwell here?)
1h ago
“Isn't it lucky that no one's ever satisfied?”
Charismatic, magnetic presence on screen playing the toxic, funny, relentless, sinister, human (!) Eric.
Jan 23, 2025
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I'm often accused of being an "old soul", a categorization I vehemently dislike because it pretends as if my taste is because of nostalgia, as opposed to what is actually cool and compelling. (If something cool comes out now, I enjoy it, but we're in a down period when it comes to culture). But, something old about me, is that I do not care at all about TikTok ending, if does happen. If Elon takes it over from the Chinese, you might as well leave anyway, but I'm just worried at why this is a huge deal for people. It's just an app. Another one will be made. TikTok is not culture, it directly flattens culture into these ten second clips that take music, movies --- things that you need to process --- into something that is now consumed by everyone at a rapid pace, not allowing for the nuances, the style, the aesthetics to sit with us.
I have never watched something on TikTok and thought that this is something in that pushing American culture to deeper heights. I am sorry. Now I am sure they're good stuff on the app, but it's not really a necessity. Whenever I hear the words "it's blowing up on TikTok", my mind immediately growls.
I understood why X becoming overrun with Elon bots and right wingers is a big deal; X actually created things, made careers, made American life, and American events available to be seen by everyone. However, TikTok is a corrupt fantasy, chopping at the wires that make physical connection important.
Read a book! Go to the movies! Go to the restaurant of a cuisine that is unheralded, go to a baseball game. Who cares about TikTok?
Jan 14, 2025
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There's something quite startling about Martin Scorsese's 1980's period compared to the rest of his decades as one of America's greatest filmmakers. In the 80's, he was weird, strange, and making weirdly manic films that feel more New York than even some of his movies about the mob. They're movies about characters who aren't glamarous people that they want to be, but rather, are losers who can't seem to correctly fucntion in normal society. They're non-violent sociopaths. I saw The King of Comedy at Metrograph recently, and it's exhilarating, hilarious, manic, and scary. With Jerry Lewis, Bobby De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, Scorsese was able to create a world where incels who are bad at comedy are wishing for fame. Sound familiar?
This is a great movie. In 1983, it was a box office flop. But in 2025, it is magical in how it's telling the future. A future of scam artists who don't want to work to get there, and don't want to sit in their mediocrity: they want to steal to get their fifteen seconds. Go watch this masterpiece.
Jan 28, 2025
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I am a NBA boy at heart, the players who play in the Association are the greatest athletes on the planet, and everyone should check out a piece I wrote on the Knicks: https://jaysonbuford.substack.com/p/the-knicks-are-struggling-to-be-fun
But MARCH MADNESS is here. So, look, college basketball can be overly sentimental, corny, for hick Midwesterns, and it is not the smart league that the NBA is. Imagine watching Nikola Jokic or LeBron James and that not being good enough for you. NBA haters are, like, a bad financial month away from being KKK members, hiding in plain sight.
However, the NCAA Tournament objectively rules. It shows games every day, every hour, non-stop, teams that you would normally not see play, and upsets, upsets that break your bracket. Upsets happen because mid-major teams get better throughout the year, especially when they play tougher competition before the conference schedules start. It's awesome to when they pull off a shocking upset.
The games are on all day! watch them! BA BA BA BA BASKETBAKLL, GIMME GIMME GIMME THE BALL CAUSE I'M GONNA DUNK IT
Mar 20, 2025