"controversial"

1997 · 28 Seasons · Comedy Central · Animated Sitcom / Satire

South Park remains one of the boldest comedies on television, willing to say things no other show would consider and often finding something true in the process. Its fast production turnaround lets it engage with the world in near real-time, and when the satire connects, nothing else on TV comes close to its combination of absurdity and insight. The crude animation and relentless vulgarity will always limit its audience, and the show's increased political focus has divided even its most devoted fans. But across nearly three decades, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have built something that no other animated series has attempted on this scale, a comedy that refuses to leave anything off-limits.

1962 · Stanley Kubrick · 153 min · Drama

Kubrick's Lolita is a fascinating compromise between a brilliant novel and a censorship regime that made faithful adaptation impossible. James Mason's Humbert is superb, Peter Sellers delivers one of the most unhinged comic performances of his career, and Kubrick finds ways to suggest what he can't show with characteristic intelligence. But the film's inability to depict the relationship at the story's center means it becomes something different from the novel: a dark comedy about obsession rather than a disturbing study of predation. That's not necessarily a failure, but it is a fundamental transformation that leaves the film feeling incomplete to anyone who knows what was left out.