"Lisa, it's your birthday"

That title has nothing to do with anything other than your name is Lisa and its a Simpsons quote. Anyone want to tell me from which episode? That's a softball.

I'm never ever mad at anyone on here. Also, my tone is always playful. Think of me like a Jerry Seinfeld. Even when he's yelling he sounds funny. Or like Woody Allen. Can he do mad well? No, he just sounds silly. That's me.

First Lisa, great response. You may have said you weren't trying to argue any more, but you were defending your positions from my questions and that's all I wanted you to do. Great stuff. I totally get where you are coming from.

"But on the flip side if I question one film from an important director, I'm not taking film seriously or willing to challenge myself, and that's the way it is, period. That was where my reaction came from, I felt attacked by the style of debate instead of engaged."

This I completely understandable. You're just not used to the style of debate where people go after what you say and tell you why you're wrong. I would say that the preliminary "that's a great point but..." or "I see what you're saying, but I disagree because..." is all implied here. I, for one, always think that when I read someone's point. Sometimes I write it but other times it doesn't seem necessary because I want to get to the meat of my argument without trying to qualify it. It's a writing thing. If we were talking I'd be talking in the most respected tones. With writing (when I'm actually taking the time to care about what I'm writing) it's all about being clear and direct. Cut the fat, they always say. Anyway, I'm sorry if I'm ever being too direct. I'll try to write in more respectful tones to you so that I can engage you instead of just making you feel shut down (though you've done a great job of being in engaged by responding to all of this clearly and emphatically, you gotta have more confidence in your opinions though!)

"It's just that telling me all the reasons why I'm wrong and you're right and will always be right isn't what I mean by a discussion of the issues."

I totally see this too and can understand. That is incredibly annoying. Perhaps where we differ is that when I hear all that I'm going to come back at that person telling them all the reasons why they are wrong. It's just different ways of responding to the nature of debate. I won't shy away from it if it's something I care about (clearly John and I care more about Malick than you, which is why we will stick to our guns. I guess we should have been debating with an actual Malick hater instead of someone who actually really dug lots of parts of the one film they have seen by him haha).

I am glad there are points you loved in the movie (we seem to be on the same page on a lot of things in it, which is cool). I think it's fun to respond to the stuff you didn't love though. In doing so, I probably used you as a scapegoat for talking to a much larger group of people I thought you were defending. Sorry for that, but thanks for letting me get a lot of nerd frustration out.

My brother was watching High Fidelity last night. Are we like the film equivalent of all the guys working in the record store?

Lisa, sorry you've had to be on the cutting board on this one. But, soon I'll post my 2004 list, and I know you love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind just like Brandon and Me. We can all gang up on anyone who doesn't like it and tell them to eat shit. Hopefully that will be the remedy you need (you're on your own on Before Sunset though haha).

Seriously though, great points and great posts from you as always.