Pop Culture Round Up: ? - September 25

Oops. I just left this sitting here instead of publishing it. Old news!

The curious appeal of miscellanea - The Boston Globe

David Denby goes on the hunt for snark, abuse in a public forum | Books | The Guardian

BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Wire writer says adverts kill TV

Fox sets 'Fantastic' reboot - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

Classic literature can take whatever we throw at it | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

Cliché, cliché, go away | Film | A.V. Club

The habit Hollywood can't seem to kick: Remakes | The Big Picture | Los Angeles Times

Evan Rachel Wood and Alexander Skarsgard Reportedly Canoodling -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine

YouTube - Senator Al Franken draws map of USA

Forgotten Memories Are Still in Your Brain | Wired Science | Wired.com

New Season - Movies - Exploring New Routes to the Indies - NYTimes.com

A look at new paintings by Bob Dylan | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times

Golden Girl Betty White wins career honour

Reading Kafka 'enhances cognitive mechanisms', claims study | Books | guardian.co.uk

Valery Gergiev: The passion that drives the ultra patriot | Ed Vulliamy | Music | The Observer

When have we not been in the midst of a vampire craze? - By Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson - Slate Magazine

Lack of sleep linked to Alzheimer's - health - 24 September 2009 - New Scientist

Extract (2009)

The worlds that writer-director Mike Judge creates are so richly observed and true to life that it's almost (almost) worth waiting a decade for a spiritual sequel to Office Space. Idiocracy, while a clever satire in its own right, never quite comes to fruition the way these two movies do. With Judge at the helm, it's comedy first, life lessons later (or not at all).

Jason Bateman plays Joel, the owner of an extract plant on the verge of being bought out by General Mills. Naturally, this is the moment when Joel is beset by problems: his wife (Kristen Wiig) has ceased having sex with him, a freak accident puts an employee (Clifton Collins Jr.) out of commission, and a grifter (Mila Kunis) arrives to capitalize on this disaster.

While the movie sort of gives shortshrift to Wiig's hilarity in favour of Kunis' charms, it's also got one helluva supporting cast to offer plenty of other laughs from Ben Affleck's delightfully spaced out bartender to Dustin Milligan's hilariously blank gigolo to David Koechner's insanely obtuse neighbour.

At the centre of it all, we have Bateman playing what surely must be known as a Jason Bateman-type. It's sort of a wry everyman who reacts to the insanity around him with deadpan hilarity. There are variations: on Arrested Development, for example, Michael was also a complete narcissist. Mind you, that's not all he can do (cf. the sleaze he played in State of Play). On the other hand, who doesn't love this character? Who doesn't want to see Bateman grow rich playing him? If anything, the conflict that moves much of the plot forward is the movie's least believable element: who wouldn't have sex with Jason Bateman?

And even if you're not into that (but let's admit it: you are), Judge's instant (cult?) classic set pieces and set ups should keep you in quotes for weeks to come. Is there any better reason to see a movie? B+