It’s no secret that fairy tales and dreams have a good deal in common. The action of both often rolls onward with a seeming inevitability, a certain sense of fatedness. Strange landscapes fade in and out of view, at once familiar and bizarre. Outsized characters show up on the scene, engulfed by an aura of meaningfulness so thick it’s nearly impossible to slice. A vampy witch on your doorstep, for instance, brandishing a single perfect apple. …more

When you don’t believe that a truth is self-evident, you justify it to others. You try to explain. …more

Rarely do I laugh at people peeing themselves, which is why I’m confident that Peep Show is one of the best TV programs currently on the air. (Should I be laughing more frequently at people pissing themselves? Dear Christopher Hitchens: Is this why women aren’t funny?)

In any case, I’m here to bring you this urgent message: Rush to Hulu and watch Peep Show. Look forward to the urine-soaked morning suit in the last episode of season four. …more

Wonderful World taps the fretful zeitgeist, but trips along with freshness and humor and pleasant darkness, like Broken Flowers or Happy-Go-Lucky. …more

I think French film entices me because I know so little about French language and culture; it suggests an as-yet-unexplored world of magical, incomprehensible people.

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In Herzog’s non-remake of Bad Lieutenant, Nic Cage tumbles into the farthest reaches of drugged, lawless mania, resembling a coked-up Willy Wonka. …more