Always look for the helpers, as Bodhisattva Fred Rogers once taught us. From my pal Stuart.

Steve Ditko’s The Creeper

H.P. Lovecraft’s Randolph Carter.

Favorite characters of mine. Who are yours? First: Merricat of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

By that same token, Xanadu was the only movie I ever saw on laser disc, because I saw it at a neighbors’ house where the parents were folks who always bought the latest expensive doohickey. I think they were swingers too. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserDisc

LaserDisc - Wikipedia

Xanadu on laser disc, sometime in 1979. I recall a relative having an early VCR around the same time. We were highly amused watching The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in reverse:

I can’t recall his exact words, but I think Ebert said he approached every movie with the notion, “Is this movie entertaining/does it work as the kind of movie it is?” You don’t review a Kurosawa film the same way you review Friday the 13th in 3D.

I always felt like Siskel stumbled into writing movie reviews, and basically reviewed everything like the normie he was. Ebert LOVED movies, but had a small toolbox when it came to writing reviews. But I liked that Ebert gave everything a fair shake. Siskel grew more uptight as he got older.

When your family money comes from blood emeralds, I doubt you and your dad had nightly talks about morality and ethics.

He was such a sweetheart before that.