I don't really have the best taste in movies--well, I kinda do: I most recently watched Nacho Libre (cf. the former statement) and Napoleon Dynamite (cf. the latter).

A few thoughts (no spoilers, really--at least, I don't think...):

1) It's notable that both were made by the same husband-wife duo, Jared and Jershua Hess, and, as is expected, there are a lot of pretty charming parallels between both movies. I've been told that the "clean"-ness of both movies are due to the writers' affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Of course, I don't know if this is the real reason behind the films' characteristic humor, but it leads to my second thought:

2) I find both objectionable on some sort of base level--the frustrating part, of course, is that there's really nothing explicitly objectionable about them. In fact, there's a lot that's good about them: it's uncomfortably heart-warming to see Napoleon save the day, or Nacho get the girl. And whereas even in movies like The Incredibles, or the Shrek series, there are jokes which may confuse younger members of the audience and make older ones cringe, there's nothing like that in both these movies. All the jokes are clean, there's no reference to sex, alcohol, no swearing. Pristine. Although the movies are rated PG, I can't possibly find anything that's worth rating it that high. My sense is that any person who on some level "gets" the jokes, will be mature enough not to be offended (if there's anything to be offended by) by them, or, worst case scenario, imitate them in all seriousness. But (my third thought):

3) I'd rather not watch these with children. In fact, I'd much rather not even discuss the fact that I'd watch them. There's something disturbingly perverse about the comedy and the characters--something about Napoleon's lax lower lip or Nacho's nascent moustache that is at once endearing and embarassing. And although, yes, funny, also, well, somehow unsettling.

After my testimonial to Hanah Volokh's pie-baking, Paul Goyette and I traded emails and blog posts about our other baking victories and defeats. As I explained to him, my favorite of all of the butter-cut-into-flour pastries is the yogurt biscuit, which also happens to be one of the most forgiving, for those who (like me) have very warm hands, and so tend to both melt some of the butter and fail to fully mix the rest. [Yes, I own a cuisinart, but didn't bring it with me this summer. Besides, the intensely tactile feel of cool flour in and on one's hands is one of the reasons to bake.]

Paul asked for my biscuit recipe, so here it is, as adapted from Mark Bittman:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Mix one cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 3/2 teaspoon baking powder in a bowl. Take 1-2 tablespoons of butter (more is richer, less makes me feel less guilty about making them), cut it into bits, and rub it into the flour. The goal is to break the butter into tiny tiny solid pieces mixed in among the flour, without melting the butter any more than necessary.

Add about 1/2 cup yogurt, the more organic or bacterial, the yummier. Gently fold the yogurt and the other ingredients together until mixed; I recommend a wooden spoon. Then pull off little biscuit-sized pieces of the batter (ranging from a heaping tablespoon to 2-3 times that size, if you like) and put them on a baking sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes, until golden brown.

The batter's incredibly flexible. If having the biscuits as the cornerstone of dinner (with some good soup or a salad) mix in as much as 1/2 cup of grated cheese; I think sharp bluey ones or dry parmesany Italian ones work best. If having for breakfast with strong coffee, add about a tablespoon of sugar and a dash of nutmeg to the batter instead. If you have other urges, experiment.

Serves one glutton or two light-eaters.