I love this movie. It's one of the few we had on VHS in my house growing up.

See, I liked Southland Tales, too.

But, for me, and I've seen some pretty strange theatre releases:

Baise-Moi (2000): It was banned, for glaringly obvious reasons. But, the theatre got an injunction and we went to one of the only showings.

Happiness (1998): Todd Solondz makes everything awkward.

The Cell (2000): Tarsem's Jennifer Lopez starring sci-fi mind trip.

House of 1000 Corpses: Rob Zombie. I'm not a horror-movie person, yet, somehow, I saw this.

하녀 (The Housemaid, 2010): one of the wildest endings I have ever witnessed. Bar none.

Irreversible (2002): My first film by Gaspar Nöe.

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990): This is what happens when you can make literally whatever you want. And, you're one of Japan's greatest filmmakers.

See, to me, "thems fightin' words."

Well... Not actually. More, like, I'll plead a case.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968!) will always be one of my favourite film experiences because it is epic AND subtle. Arrival (2016) comes close, as do Her (2013) and Advantageous (2009).

It spans eons, megaparsecs, and bends the concept of reality itself. Meanwhile, it's also two guys on a ship with a talking computer. Some neat camera tricks and big scale sets. Some very creative storytelling and a reminder that we're sophisticated monkeys compared to a, potentially, cosmic-level intelligence.

Imagine Bezos or Musk digging up a 4 billion year old alien data center on the moon — one that pointed to Jupiter. What would follow would be, exactly, 2001. Everyone involved in a slipshod attempt to fly to Jupiter would die. Everyone. The AI would kill them all.

Also, note: the sheer impact a single secret has on an Artificial Intelligence system. And to top it off, a single, poorly told lie.

This film made me love film.

Saw this. Liked it. Not as much as Primer, but still, it was good to me.

Along this thread, Flight.

My partner will never forgive me for showing her the inversion scene a week before we had 13 h of flying to do to get home from one of the Gulf States.

Friends, sure, and hopefully family, are different. We are a social species. Beyond that, it sounds like you have a lovely child and some wonderful kids in their orbit.

Below is a long winded way of getting to this point: people stuck at Kohlberg's stage 2 are not behaving maturely, they're behaving like children. This arrested development helps to explain why a person would put people into their phone contacts as transactional arrangements rather than as humans with names. Its jerkyy, childish behaviour

Notably, however, in an intensely transactional world, such behaviour is REWARDED. As such confers a selective advantage. So does throwing a well-timed tantrum, playing dumb, lying, flattering, and being intensely selfish.

That said...

Watch your children closely. Mind their interactions. The more people they know, the more they realize they dont know everyone, and as they see more interactions and develop a wider array of desires, some people will become a means to an end.

Taking Kohlberg's view, children are pre-adolescent. The next stage of moral development takes place during adolescence. For some it'll be earlier. For some, later or never.

When your 5-year old, or 15-year old, hates you and screams at you for not being the means to their achievable end, that's stage 2. Same when a 45-year old berates a server for getting their drink order wrong. Or, when people are reduced to their functions: If they're using you for your pool and trampoline, and refuse to learn your name, that's stage 2.

Keep in mind also there are overlapping theories of development, some of which describe behaviour better than others in similar situations. Hence, "theory" and not "law." Eric Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, Lev Vygotsky's theory of social development, and more are out there.

As the parent of two kids under 10, as a teacher to approximately 5000 variously-aged children in the past 19 years, and as a former sales and customer service rep, all people are capable of behaving like "ones who are not psychologically, physically, socially, or legally mature enough to be held responsible for their own actions." There are adults with diminished capacity, or who can be held not criminally responsible under this definition. However, for the most part, it will serve.

• Psychologically mature: ability to regulate internal emotional states while simultaneously interacting with exterior stimuli including others' psychological states; affected by physical, social, and emotional conditions moment to moment.

• Physically mature: let's go with 21 for this one. For legal reasons. 24 for Montessori reasons. 25 for insurance reasons.

• Socially mature: able to let go of the "main character" perspective and recognize that society is made of many main characters. Sonder, as defined by the Dictionary of Obsucre Sorrows, is not a problem for socially (and psychologically) mature people.

• Legally mature: follows from most of the above, but still affected by the previous statements about "diminished capacity, or ... be[ing] held not criminally responsible".

Any of these immaturities can be problematic. All of them together is the license we give children as they develop. If, by adulthood (25 at the OUTside), they're really struggling to exhibit maturity in more than one of these, I'd wonder what happened in childhood to cause that. Anti-social or asocial? Sociopathy risk. Psychologically immature? Risking psychopathologies.

This is a long winded way of getting to this point: people stuck at Kohlberg's stage 2 are ... wait, I moved this section up top. But the next part bears repeating:

Notably, however, **in an intensely transactional world, such behaviour is REWARDED. As such confers a selective advantage. So does throwing a well-timed tantrum, playing dumb, lying, flattering, and being intensely selfish. **

The world is broken we just live in it.

They are using people as a means to an end; **selfish narcissists with diminished capacity for empathy, responsibility, and reason who want what they want when they want it **— and will kick, scream, cry, yell, and engage in spite until you give in and they give nothing in return. Like a newborn would. We don't blame newborns.

(And, I don't really think newborns engage in spite. It's just funny to think it. After the fact, of course. Because, as you know, when you have a newborn, you might think they pooped three times in three diapers in three minutes, and once on the floor, out of spite. You'd be wrong. But you wouldnt be faulted for the thought.)

The first book I ever read about psychopaths and narcissists is still my favorite. My partner struggles with her narcissism. She gave me the book. It's probably why we're still together. It bugs me, still. But, since I'm an introverted masochist who has first-daughter tendencies (exampled by this very post), challenge accepted.

This is how children see the world.

Usually, people develop beyond this and see the utility of having relationships that are defined by their social depth, shared experiences and values, and aesthetic qualities.

Look also at Kohlberg's stages of moral development. (Sorry for the Wikipedia article link. But, still, it's a start. If I can find a different resource, I'll edit.)

The people youre describing are stuck at stage 2.

I havent seen it, but Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was Chadwick Boseman's final film.

Actually, his last six films: Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, 21 Bridges, and Da 5 Bloods were all filmed after his diagnosis and during his treatment.

He went out like an absolute giant.

e: Damn, now I have to add Giant, James Dean's final film.

Cory Doctorow wrote a series of short stories and this is the first one in the book. They just want toast.

Fittingly, the book is called Radicalized.

Don't forget, there's more than 800 000 imprisoned people working for the US economy as well. They get paid an average of between "13 and 52 cents an hour", according to reporting by the Guardian and the ACLU from June 2022.

"Seven states – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas – pay nothing for the vast majority of prison work."

Update

The latest report from the Human Rights Research Center on this came out on Tuesday, 2 June 2026.

Kaitlyn Andres, "Modern Day Slavery in the United States: Exploring Forced Labor for Prison Inmates", Human Rights Research Center, June 2, 2026

"Most incarcerated workers (~80%) work in jobs that maintain their facilities including janitorial duties, groundskeeping, food preparation, and laundry.3 For this type of labor, inmates at federal prisons can earn between $0.12 and $0.40 per hour." (Andres, 2026)

So much for keeping up with inflation.

In January 2025, an insightful report from the Economic Policy Institute states,

" from fighting wildfires to toiling in the kitchens of some of the country’s most popular food franchises, incarcerated workers perform vital functions across the United States and produce billions of dollars in value... Incarcerated labor is rooted in slavery and bears an especially striking resemblance in the South." (Mast, 2025)

Now add the 60 000 immigrants, migrants, and refugees kidnapped and imprisoned by ICE since 2025.

"Tens of thousands of detainees participate in the VWP because it is their only available source of income while in detention and they are often coerced into participating or threatened with retaliation if they refuse to participate."

"for-profit companies running America’s immigration centers are permitted to put immigrant detainees to work for just $1 a day, based on a 1950s era law." (Pasternak, 2026)

So, basically, this horseshit tariff is pretty rich coming out of anyone in this administration.