As a younger man I thought Casino was a weaker dupe of Goodfellas, but it's not. It's the counterpoint, the coda. Goodfellas is a celebration of outlaw ethos with a spectacular Hand of God crash in the last act. Casino is the Catholic God passing judgement within the first minute as Rothstein's car explodes, sending him to Hell.
There are no carnal pleasures in Casino. Hands are hammered from the get go. Eyes explode. The mob's old and ugly. Don Rickles is the sex. Ace Rothstein's rise is morose and clouded in complications. Henry Hill had dates in spectacular oners through the back of fabulous clubs. Ace Rothstien is arguing over the number of blueberries in a muffin. It's the difference between watching a movie about a gangster versus one about an accountant.
The gangster gets the looksmatch wife in Karen. The accountant shoots above his rightful league and gets Sharon Fucking Stone in her prime. We watch the courtship like a trainwreck because God does not allow men like Ace Rothstein have women like that, and the movie takes God's side.
Goodfellas is a young man's movie about getting high and getting laid and getting caught before you know it. Casino doesn't give you any of the fun part because its message isn't crime doesn't pay, it's life doesn't pay. It's the final lesson the middle aged man knows but ignores as he puts on his pants everyday: the house always wins and the house hates you.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a prime example of how something can be gothic without it being set in a European castle with bats and ghosts. This is “the old, dark house” trope, just inverted to reflect an 70s American aesthetic. Broad daylight, blazing sun, just as scary.
Zach Cregger absolutely nailed it when he said the term “elevated horror” only exists because some people still treat horror like a lesser genre.
HEREDITARY and GET OUT aren’t “better than horror”; they are horror, just like EVIL DEAD II is. Different styles, same art form. The genre’s always been great.
Fun bit from an interview in 2022 is going viral: [https://t.co/4FMmgqIwIV]
Martyrs filmmaker Pascal Laugier will direct female vampire movie NOCTURNAL.
Laugier teases, "I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of vampire films in my life, but I’ve never seen one like Nocturnal."
The film is set in 1943 on an island that's home to an undying supernatural evil.
Got a job at a furniture store and immediately knew it wasn't for me. First day, told my boss I wanted to pursue writing about horror movies full time. He probably thought I was crazy. A couple years later I was running Bloody Disgusting. Still do today. Believe in yourself!!
For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. If it's a great movie, it lets you understand a little bit more about what it's like to be a different gender, a different race, a different age, a different economic class, a different nationality, a different profession, different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us...
Roger Ebert
Ryan Coogler declining an invitation to join the Academy, then turning around and creating his own council to help ensure more films are properly exhibited in theaters. Speaks volumes, man.
Dear Prime Minister Mark Carney (@markjcarney),
I was on the Toronto Ferry last year staring at our majestic waterfront.
I saw paddlers, kayakers, dragon boaters, sailors, windsurfers, fishers, paddleboarders, water taxis, and cruisers all sharing the space in harmony.
When we docked at Hanlan’s Point on the Toronto Islands I was surrounded by hikers, joggers, cyclists, birders, picnickers, swimmers, photographers, beachgoers, frisbee golfers, naturalists, and thousands of tourists and locals enjoying this lush ecological paradise surrounded by our sparkling freshwater lake.
Please don’t destroy this by paving Lake Ontario.
Three weeks ago Ontario Premier Doug Ford (@fordnation) announced he will "seize" Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport (YTZ) in order to expand runways into Lake Ontario (1), bring in jets against the legal contracts governing the airport (2), and nix 14,000 mixed-use homes slated to go up on the shore (which taxpayers have already spent $1.4B developing). (3,4)
Although this decision is not his to make — Billy Bishop is governed by the City of Toronto and the federal government (5) — Premier Ford says he will overrule the City to "bring in jets one way or another." (6,7)
Premier Ford says he has the "full support" of your federal government to do this. (8)
Prime Minister Carney:
It is not too late.
Please say no to expanding Billy Bishop airport into the lake.
We don’t need this, we don’t want this, and we can’t afford this.
We don’t need this.
We can already go anywhere we want to go.
I live right in downtown Toronto.
I can be anywhere I want in the world, tomorrow.
I can walk to bus, subway, streetcar, and UP express stations from my house and I fly 40x per year.
In the past year I have been to over 35 airports on 3 continents and YYZ is one of the absolute best. In fact, in the past month it has won "Best Airport Staff in North America" (9), been ranked 4th in all of the Americas in efficiency (out of 50 airports) (10), and won Best Large Airport on the entire continent (an award it's won eight times in nine years.) (11)
Right this second, checking Uber, I can get from my house by car to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport (YYZ) in 21 mins and to Toronto’s Billy Bishop Island Airport (YTZ) in 14 mins.
Right this second, if someone at Union Station wanted to get to YYZ on public transit it would take 28 minutes (UP Express) and to YTZ would take 22 minutes (TTC streetcar).
We are talking about a 6 minute time savings here.
If we want to serve southwestern Ontario’s population with expanded jet service we simply need to use the 7000m of existing, high-capacity, under-utilized jet runways within 2 hours of Toronto at Hamilton (@flyYHM ), Waterloo (@flyYKF), and London (@flyYXU) versus entertaining a "special economic zone" to force a jet-strip into the most environmentally sensitive and densely populated waterfront in the country.
We don’t want this.
This tiny speck of ecological paradise provides critical respite from our dense and urban concrete jungle and is vital for mental health, community, and happiness.
Over 400 peer-reviewed studies show urban forests and parks mitigate depression and anxiety and enhance overall mental well-being. (12)
I know you agree because four days ago on March 31, 2026 you announced your "Force of Nature" strategy with the vision of "protecting, restoring, and valuing nature." This wonderful program declares a federal investment of $3.8 billion dollars into "protecting critical habitats and aligning industrial strategies with biodiversity conservation." (13, 14, 15)
Also, I looked into the runway expansion into the lake that Premier Ford has promised.
Right now the shortest jet runway in Canada is 1832m (YHM Hamilton, ON) and the shortest jet runway in the world is 1508m (LCY London City Airport, UK). There are also new Canadian Aviation Regulations (RESA) stating all runways need to add 150m on each end for safety. (16, 17, 18)
Today the Billy Bishop runway is 1216m. (19)
Even the most conservative assumption — building the shortest jet runway in the entire world! — still requires a minimum of 600m more runway to land jets.
Here is a current aerial view of Billy Bishop Airport. (Photo 1 / attached)
Here is an aerial view of Billy Bishop Airport with the smallest possible runway extension of 600m added. (Photo 2 / attached)
(Of course this photo doesn’t include additional parking, hangers, gates, aprons, tarmacs, fueling stations, de-icing stations, blast fences, control towers, baggage carousels, taxi pickups … )
We can’t afford this.
Premier Ford was first elected in 2018 as the right wing candidate (PC) with 40.5% of the vote (left wing side of NDP and Liberal was 53.2%) and campaigned as a fiscal conservative. (FN) He attacked the Liberals for their $6.7B deficit and vowed a "return to balanced budgets" that would "begin in 2019." (20, 21)
Since then Premier Ford has won two more elections — with a nearly identical right / left vote split and record lows in voter turnout — and has now presided over 8 budgets. (22, 23)
In order from 2019 to 2026 those eight budgets have been for *deficits* of $8.7B, $16.4B, $13.5B, $5.9B, $5.6, $1.1B, $12.3B, and, most recently, just announced last week on March 26, 2026, coming in at a 77% increase on his own 2025 forecasts, $13.8B. (24, 25)
Since Premier Ford was elected he has *increased* Ontario’s debt from $338B to $485B. Ontario now pays $17.2B a year … just in interest payments. (26, 27, 28)
Notably, Premier Ford’s most recent $13.8B deficit budget does not include any money for the projected $1-2B cost of expanding Billy Bishop airport.
(Prime Minister, you and Premier Ford are both 61 and have a seemingly warm relationship despite wildly different education and business paths. (29, 30, 31, 32) Might you have time for some evening finance tutorials?)
Prime Minister Carney:
We don’t need this, we don’t want this, we can’t afford this.
Please say no to this expansion plan.
Please allow the legal agreements governing the airport to remain in the hands of those who legally own it — the City of Toronto and the federal government — and not with Premier Ford’s provincial government who is attempting to autocratically rule something in which it has no stake.
At the Junos six days ago on March 29, 2026 you praised 82-year-old @jonimitchell and justifiably called her "one of the greatest artists of all time." (33)
Joni warned us about "paving paradise to put up a parking lot" and now that’s exactly what Premier Ford is proposing we do.
The Toronto Harbour, Toronto Harbourfront, and Toronto Islands are a crown jewel for the functioning of our great city, our great province, and our great country.
Would New York City pave over Central Park?
Would Paris put runways on the Seine?
We absolutely should not pave the paradise of Lake Ontario to put up runways and parking lots we don’t need, don’t want, and can’t afford.
It's not too late.
Please say no.
Thank you,
Neil Pasricha
//
(1) https://t.co/lgQ5WdNcwV
https://t.co/A74NIBBFil
(2) https://t.co/B3ujtqHAxs
(3) https://t.co/Heig4pdd1T
(4) https://t.co/iQuAopsifd
(5) https://t.co/Daj6zWY9mC
(6) https://t.co/AgBbiwy2R9
(7) https://t.co/QFNa94c4sn
https://t.co/3O9To68MN1
https://t.co/QFNa94c4sn
(8) https://t.co/3O9To68MN1
(9) https://t.co/I3kBjq6thM
(10) https://t.co/kgRl5vJV8W
(11) https://t.co/8stbfkcmcm
(12) https://t.co/VJiYAGJ9JJ
(13) https://t.co/7ZiPrHlVxa
(14) https://t.co/dqg5ldemUZ
(15) https://t.co/ytJ0iv8ymB
(16) https://t.co/jwQm4JzTUN
(17) https://t.co/LMheI43DKb
https://t.co/8YX8IF1gqi
(18) https://t.co/Ci7qMEMpMw
(19) https://t.co/KmhPvr48Ir
(20) https://t.co/PCk3ah5cR0
(21) https://t.co/ZuviVaCKVF
(22) https://t.co/xSk5kvX4Ym
(23) https://t.co/DwJHjj05BY
(24) https://t.co/JVmlSC4Y1z
(25) https://t.co/NXBsJyGS8g
(26) https://t.co/e2kIIzuMsy
(27) https://t.co/jKAUVglOoB
(28) https://t.co/08PLVXXUJI
(29) https://t.co/doLO2tbShf
(30) https://t.co/r98N6I0ahT
(31) https://t.co/LcMIgaigwB
(32) https://t.co/y0wFa9L42e
(33) https://t.co/HvMafmRLtK
//
CC: Minister of Transport @SteveMcKinnon, Minister of Environment @JulieDabrusin, Mayor of Toronto @OliviaChow, MP @RunChiNguyenRun, MP @J_Maloney, MP @JulieDzerowicz, MP @Coteau, MP @Rob_Oliphant, MP @Vgasparro, MP @Yvan_Baker, MP @Jzerucelli, Ontario Minister of Transportation @PrabSarkaria, Ontario Minister of Infrastructure @KingaSurmaMPP, @PortsToronto, MPP @MaritStiles, MPP @JessicaBellTO, MPP @ChrisGlover, Councillor @BravoDavenport, Councillor @DianneSaxxe, Candidate @Massey_Toronto, @Nieuport, @JenniferQuinnTO, @Envirodefense, @BirdsCanada, @NoJetsTo, @CycleTO, @TheGlobeAndMail, @TorontoStar, @CBCToronto, @TheCurrentCBC, @BlogTO
This doesn't seem to be getting a ton of attention so I wanna boost this. I likely wouldn't be working as a writer if it weren't for the Nickelodeon Writing Program. It literally changed my life.
This could easily change your life or someone around you. Spread this info!!!
The last color tweaks on the last VFX shots of the last episode of #TheBoys. Now 100% done. It never truly hit me that it's over, cause there was always something to work on. Until today. This was the best professional experience of my life. I hope you like it. April 8 @theboystv
Rep. Ted Lieu says the full Epstein files contain information that Donald Trump RAPED minors.
So he started a war to distract us from his crimes.
What's your response to Ted Lieu......??👀
MAKE THIS GO VIRAL ON 𝕏. LET’S GO 👏
BREAKING : 🇨🇦 Canadian leader Elizabeth May blasted Netanyahu
“We know who the enemy of peace is. And unfortunately, he has a name. He is Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu” 🔥
What a fearless lady. Mad respect 🫡
Simon Pegg on why he thinks fast Zombies are pointless & the movies that Edgar Wright & he watched in preparation for "Shaun of the De@d" (2004):
"Interviewer: What do you think of the trend towards fast moving zombies?
Pegg: I think it's kind of pointless. For me, zombies are supposed to be slow. The word zombie comes from "somnambulist," which means sleepwalker. They're creepier when they're are slow, plus when they're fast, you can't share any screen time with them because you're always running away.
Interviewer: What was the process for you and Edgar?
Pegg: We watched a lot of siege movies like 'Straw Dogs' (1971), 'Assault on Precinct 13' (1976) and a lot of well-structured films like 'Back to the Future' (1985) and 'Raising Arizona' (1987). Then, we literally wrote out scenes on index cards."
(Simon Pegg's interview with Daniel Robert Epstein)
P.S: On this day, 22 years ago, "Shaun of the De@d" (2004) premiered in London, England.