Frank in Thief is James Caan's best performance.  You totally buy him as this tough East Coast guy trying to quit and live the American Dream that he has built for himself.  The sad thing is he can't escape the criminal life or the past (the scene with the baby adoption worker).

This might be sacrilege but I enjoy To Live and Die in LA more than The French Connection.  It's just more fun for me to watch.  Dafoe is great as Rick Masters as well.  Yikes, indeed, probably as bad as Costner turning down all those roles.

I've seen Fear City and it's hilarious.  And yes, I love seeing pre-cleaned/up sanitized NYC.  Couple other Abel Ferrara's suggestions:  Ms.  45 but it's got that 70s grit.  The storyline is a little unique.  King of New York, probably Ferrara's most mainstream film.  Features a great cast and some fine performances from Christopher Walken and Laurence Fishburne.

You left out the part where he told his supporters not to vote (the mail in ballot stuff) which was one of dumbest things he's done.

I just don't get why the entire trans issue is a political issue.  It just seems trivial when compared to other pressing political issues facing this country.  How did we ever get to this where (maybe) social issues got turned into a politcal football anyway?  Both sides do this too so it's not like you can single out one party.

I agree with all of this.  Social media is pretty much a waste at this point for me outside of news (from solid sources and occasional analysis of that).  I mean you basically need to weed out all the bs'ers and people who have no clue what the fuck they are talking about. 

Funny you should mention the 90s, I was watching a little of Mission Impossible (1996 one) and Cruise's character is on the internet using/searching for a usenet newsgroup for info.  And I was wondering how the fuck did we go from that to this?

Mentioning youtube, my nephews watch that stuff a lot.  And do you know what they watch?  Not anything informative or that type of stuff but youtube videos of people PLAYING video games.  Sigh.   As far as infleuncers go,  they had an episode of Law and Order where the older cops (around our age) who had a WTF look when interviewing 2 "infleuncers" that were involved in a case.  That's my reaction.  I have no idea what that is nor will ever.

The last point is key, these guys in charge of these media outlets are making way too much money to care.  They know that their outlets are harmful and just dumping false info or just allowing people to voice this stuff (this is nonpartisan issue to me) and still they do nothing because they are rolling in dough.  It's become a business now and they only do shit when there's really bad optics or some sort of scandal that is unavoidable.

I'm pretty certain it was AMC.  I remember this sort of.  I also remember they ran the unedited film, then showed Godfather + Godfather II seperately.  Because I remember taping I and II on a VHS tapes.  Oh fuck, I probably should have tape the unedit film as well.

Oh definitely,  the entire sequence sets the 2nd half of the film in motion.   And yeah even though you know it's coming (Sonny's death) it still hits you.  It's totally consistent with Sonny's character and flaws.

I totally forgot how the Winona character went totally downhill after she lost her job.  IIRC she was rather immature about how she got fired.  It was just really stupid and like self sabotage as you say.  Basically after that she becomes a slacker and a double of the Ethan Hawke character.

You're actually correct about the major flaw with the film.  It should be a debate about how 90s post college ideals, dreams, and life philosphies (or whatever) comes smack dab into the realities of life.  It's a great film title, I might point out, nice play on words.  Anyway, you might have these ideals but those don't usually pay the bills.  And sometimes you have to delay your goals (like Lainey becoming a director for documentaries) for a bit otherwise you end up stuck like the Hawke character.  The ending of this is like something out of a romantic comedy except that I have no idea how it got "to that point" and it's not really consistent with the reality of what we have shown in the film.  I don't want to sound like I'm trashing this too much since I do love that it captures the vibe/feel of the 90s perfectly.

Straight Time (1979)  Someone criticized Hoffman's films a few pages back.  He's fine here as a career criminal trying to go straight and failing at it.  He does attempt to re-enter society but it just doesn't work for him for a variety of reasons.  So he predicatably goes back to the life he knows.  I don't think I would have liked this as much if Theresa Russell (aka the MILF in Wild Things) wasn't as good in her role as the girlfriend.   I'd say more but I don't want to spoil it.

Basic Instinct (1991) .  This one is a fav and maybe a guilty pleasure.  For a good while there Michael Douglas could do no wrong. I gotta admit though I love late 80s-early 90s Sharon Stone.  From stuff like Action Jackson, Total Recall, The Quick and the Dead to Casino and this film, she did a lot of stuff that I loved.  And she basically owns this film from the way she basically manipulates Nick(Douglas character) from start to finish.  He thinks he is in control but he's really not.  The character becomes somewhat obsessive and psychotic in the second half of the film.  I totally forgot how funny this film is too.  The cops are like cracking jokes at the first crime scene.  I still think the film is a bit long and wouldn't cut out some parts of the middle.