Back when Australia was still remote and exotic, before Crocodile Dundee even, a lot of people back in the day thought he sang:
“He just smiled and gave me a bit of my sandwich”,
which would have also made for a fantastic lyric in a very silly way.

We’re gonna need a note from your volcanologist.

Oil, rubber, steel.

My recommendations to you are as follows:

My favorite Altman film overall probably might have to be The Long Goodbye. Check out how the camera is always moving, if even slightly; there are no static shots. Midway through the movie, the great Sterling Hayden steals the show. And keep an eye out for a very, very young Ahnold Schwarzenegger in a bit role as literal and figurative muscle for the batshit insane bad guy.

Brewster McCloud is a bonkers twisted fantasy that caught me by surprise by how much I enjoyed it, it’s about a kid who:

1. Lives in the Astrodome in secret, in a forgotten construction nook, a big one, between walls and floors.
2. Wants to be able to fly.
3. Is being encouraged by an older woman, who might actually already know how to fly.

Also, there are people being killed all over town, and it might have something to do with all this.

Altman came in throwing punches with the noisy background and chaotic dialogue wafting every which way, right from the outset, on MASH and McCabe & Mrs Miller, which is why it’s a good idea to watch his films with English subtitles turned on.

I don’t remember the cacophony being as intense in some of his other early works, like Brewster McCloud, California Split and The Long Goodbye.
But in Nashville, it’s most certainly there, front and center and in your face.

a multi-character parallel storytelling style that is only ever celebrated amongst industry snobs

I’m going to agree with caveats here, because some directors who are actual artists do it for the sake of the film and the challenge of it, as opposed to what I’ll refer to as “industry types”, who do it for the prizes. And some crazy bastards manage to pull it off. Three names come to mind - Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Soderbergh.

I’ve never seen “Crash” and never wanted to, from what I’ve read, the bland yet heavy-handed results onscreen, plus the lazy reflexive accolades, made me view the whole thing with a cynical eye, like you.

In fact, Robert Altman had a thing or two to say about those “industry types”, in his triumphant early-90s comeback film “The Player”.
Also, do yourself a favor and watch Altman’s “Short Cuts”, to see parallel storytelling at its’ best.

Nahuatl calling the planet

Even the term “planet” here is noisy, as it implies knowledge of an orb floating and/or spinning in space.

Maybe a better (less modern scientific) term in this case would be “world”, which could have been “what I have seen and have heard about, plus the regions beyond where dragons lie”, as an equivalent to “one, two, three, many”.

The entire instance seems to be engaged in an opinion shaping campaign

That’s too subtle a statement. It is a willful, bad-faith, full-on attack on objective reality via the rewriting of historical facts, redaction of massive volumes of information and constant aggressive, knee-jerk silencing of voices.

As such, it can also be described as a malicious assault on the mental health of individuals and society as a whole. Their actions a clear example of the type of repressive, miserable society they would have us live in, if given the chance by hook or by crook.

If you ask her - “The Beatles or The Stones?”, she’s liable to go for The Kinks instead.

I’ve seen Shadows, Faces and The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie.
The man nearly single-handedly invented independent highbrow cinema in the United States, a gritty and bare urban realism that is as artistically important as the French Nouvelle Vague.

To put it in an oversimplified way, without Cassavettes there is no Scorsese as we know him.

Doubtful, if it was, the sign would go:

Take Any Item To Checkout Or Ask An Associate For Assistance, Eh?

Does this sound like the prototypical clickbait headline title, or what do you say?

That reflection on the water takes this image to another level.

Bimbo Bread!

But there are also many that are “among the greatest I will ever hear”.

This one today is anti-humor perfection, I nominate it goes straight into the Heathcliff Without Heathcliff HOF.

Remember when the web didn’t suck?

No, I don’t. Not since 2000, when I logged on from home for the first time. The majority of it has always sucked. Then the web can suddenly do new things… and finds new ways to suck.
It has, however, always had excellent little areas and corners.

I’m gonna go off the beaten path a little here and go with Jonathan Demme’s “Something Wild”, chances are the guests haven’t seen it and that film is one helluva ride, it’s got a little bit of something for everyone - comedy, romance, thriller, you name it.

The age sends my imagination racing, I wonder if there was a Proto-Indo-European name for it, as a remote curiosity/enigma.

“They say that somewhere up north, half a moon beyond the most remote village, there is a large stone put on top of another by the hand of the Earth Goddess herself.”

The sacred electrolytes!