Why Should the Mets Sign Jose Reyes?

Why should the Mets sign Jose Reyes? According to an obviously reliable message-board commenter, when the New York Mets have had Jose Reyes in the lineup during the last nine years, the team's record is 538-496, good for a winning percentage of .520; without Reyes, that number dips to .430, or 182-241. Translation: as Reyes goes, so go the Mets. All the more reason that now is the time for the team to cut ties.

Spooky, Scary: The 39th Annual Village Halloween Parade on NY1

At the urging of my good friend Kris Lo Presto -- and for the first time since 2008 -- I decided to do a running diary of the 39th annual Village Halloween Parade on NY1. Enjoy!

We're All Still Alive: Pearl Jam Twenty Reviewed

Pearl Jam Twenty is a documentary about Pearl Jam. Basically, it could have been a blank screen playing Pearl Jam songs for two hours and I would have loved every second. This is to say that any kind of "review" or level of detached and impartial criticism is impossible for me, but here are some thoughts anyway.

Not Selling Jeans: The Wonder of Moneyball

There's this hilarious growing fallacy about the outstanding Moneyball: the more you know about baseball, the less you'll like it, and vice versa. Which would be true if it weren't comically false. Moneyball might not be the best baseball movie of all-time — The Natural and Major League are still pretty damn good, giving you the beats of a traditional sports movie that you not only expect, but secretly want — but it's certainly the best movie about baseball. This is a movie that includes a set-piece built around Ricardo Rincon and features an inspirational montage about batters taking pitches. Bog down in some statistical liberties if you must, but if you love baseball, this is your movie.

It Had the Cadence of a Joke: NBC Thursday Night Comedies Recapped

With the exception of 30 Rock, all of your favorite NBC comedies returned to the airwaves on Thursday night. And Community. Ahead, a small recap of the three shows, since you couldn't get me to watch Whitney if you changed the title to 30 Rock. (That doesn't make any sense, but whatevers! Whitney!)

Labor Day: The Help Reviewed

There are two major questions surrounding The Help: is the film a pandering bit of white savior myth-building, and is Viola Davis a Best Actress contender or Best Supporting Actress contender? The latter, less-dicey query has a simple answer (much simpler than the Oscar cognoscenti would have you believe): She's certainly a Best Actress contender and possibly the category's front-runner, provided Meryl Streep doesn't blow everyone away in the kinda hack-looking The Iron Lady. The Help is Davis' film from opening voice over to final defiant walk down the street; any thought that Emma Stone is in charge here is utterly wrong.

As for the possibly-racist intentions of The Help, well, that has a pretty simple answer too.

How I Spent My Summer: At the Movies

Shut the door. Have a seat. It's September. With Labor Day having all but arrived and the calendar turned away from August, summertime is officially over. (Pause here for head shaking and teeth gnashing.) To celebrate this totally crappy turn of events, yours truly will be using the next few blog posts to fondly remember the summer of 2011.

Roll film!