Vince Vaughn

The current cinematic trend toward “explainer culture” — the need to dissect art to discern its true meaning and the demand for directors to explain their creative intentions — is counterintuitive to the enjoyment of art. As David Lynch once said, “The film is the thing.” The movie is the conversation; the only explanation that really matters is your own. And yet, walking out of Brawl in Cell Block 99, it’s almost impossible to not wonder about writer and director S. Craig Zahler’s intentions. Is this a genuine exploitation film, or is it merely exploitative? And if it’s the former, what place do those films have and what purpose do they serve in 2017?

Vince Vaughn has come a long way from crashing weddings as a strictly comedic actor. He’s made one of my favorite transitions in film acting, from “Oh, he’s hilarious” to “Oh, he’s actually really good.” While his season of True Detective wasn’t exactly lauded, Vaughn has proved his talent for drama, and his new film Brawl in Cell Block 99 certainly looks like it’ll prove that even further. Also, he just looks terrifying.

We never got a sequel to Dodgeball, the 2004 underdog sports comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller as opponents in an epic dodgeball tournament. The last update on a possible 2 Dodge 2 Ball came four years ago, when screenwriter Clay Tarver was reportedly tapped to write a screenplay for a potential follow-up. Four years later, we still have nothing to show for his efforts.

Fighting With My Family, the movie starring Dwayne Johnson, written and directed by British comedian Stephen Merchant, and based on a documentary about a family of WWE wrestlers, is maybe the strangest movie in the works right now, besides whatever fresh hell Adam Sandler is cooking up for Netflix. Today, Johnson announced that none other than Vince Vaughn would be joining the cast of his new movie.

Pop quiz — Is Dragged Across Concrete: A. The name of a ’90s post-grunge album, B. The way you feel every morning when you wake up and read that day’s onslaught of terrible news from Trump’s America, or C. The name of a new crime drama starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn? If you read the headline, you know the answer is C, obviously (but the other two are pretty believable).

Journey back with me now to the heady days of the mid-2000s. George W. Bush was President. Iron Man was still known by most people as a Black Sabbath song. And a little raunchy comedy called Wedding Crashers became a phenomenon in theaters, crossing an astounding $209 million in the U.S. alone. The film cemented the bankability of its leads, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, and helped launch the careers of much of its supporting cast, including Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, and a young Bradley Cooper. The film, about a pair of bros who, y’know, crash weddings, is still remembered fondly to this day.

How bad is Vince Vaughn’s hair in this movie? So bad there’s actually a joke about it in the trailer, presumably because everyone in the audience is already thinking about it already.

The critical derision of True Detective Season 2 came to a head last night with the untimely “Omega Station” finale, but did Nic Pizzolatto’s once-revered drama redeem itself, as HBO promised? Here’s how every major character ended the Vinci-set season, for those dying of heart blue-balls.

Here’s the thing: comparisons between Season 1 and Season 2 of True Detective are inevitable. The first season of Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO detective drama was a near-perfect character piece in which the cultish serial killer mystery was an added bonus. And although this is an anthology series, so far we only have that one season to go on. Comparing the technical aspects and general quality of Season 2 to Season 1 is fair, but there’s been a lot of complaining that the second season is downright bad (it’s not). The problem is that everyone loved that first season so much that they just instinctively want more of the same.

I feel sorry for those of you who may have made the unfortunate decision of hanging around Twitter or Facebook before watching tonight’s episode of True Detective. There’s absolutely no way you could avoid spoilers about the ending of “Night Finds You,” but if you’ve made it this far, I trust you’ve already seen the episode, which makes this a safe space to discuss what the hell just happened.