I think winning the Oscar buys you a lot of room to fuck up. Judging by the release date, seems the studio thought he had another Oscar-caliber hit up his sleeve. And also it's Warner Bros. and he probably negotiated at least a couple of pet projects into his multi-picture Batman deal.

Yeah, I don't think he's a hack at all. I just think some of his stand alone novels were overly ambitious and outside his wheelhouse. His talents lie in the PI novels. He's no Ross Macdonald or even Robert B Parker really, but he's better than many.

Fun fact: I read an entire review of the movie that thought it was set in Miami.

Costumes look borrowed from a community theater Guys and Dolls production

I can't get past how silly he looks in it.

ok

Just watched Midnight Special last night and it didn't really work for me. I appreciated what Nichols was doing (and I love every other Nichols movie, save for Loving which I haven't seen) and I thought it had all the makings of something great, but for whatever reason it never came together for me. I suspect it's…

Yeah, I noted that in the first sentence. Seems like there's no way around this concept not being creepy, might as well have dialed up the creepiness instead of ignoring it.

Needs to be on the big screen, imo.

Screw that. I add "The" before all of them, kind of like how my grandma adds a possessive "'s" to the name of every store (e.g. Target's, Walmart's, Kroger's). "The Sicario featured Emily Blunt's finest performance"

I'm not liking the "fan service" adaptations we've been getting as of late. Meaning the filmmakers include as many details that are accurate to the source material as possible but it doesn't necessarily make for a good film, but the fans are happy regardless. I think any filmmaker should approach a film as a film and…

Yeah, that Katie Holmes thriller was pretty bad.

Norm doesn't have a license, which is amazing since he's been in LA 20+ years.
Also could any episode be more uncomfortable than the Todd Barry one?

Rushmore holds up even better on subsequent viewings because it's like a Wes Anderson character has been dropped from one of his later movies into the real world and has to adapt, and the film mimics that same quality, like it's trying to find the Anderson-ness in 1998 Houston.

I think it was more or less inspired by the works of Stefan Zwieg, probably in the way the Coens often do a sort of pastiche of a favorite author (Millers Crossing = Hammett; Man Who Wasn't There = Cain).

That's it. I think Jerry had to kind of shame him into turning the knife over.

Rushmore in theaters! Still my favorite.

Kind of agree. I don't think he can top Rushmore. I think the combination of a higher budget, a little more freedom, but still being confined by the limitations of not being able to build all his own sets, not being able to cast every name actor, etc. made him that much more creative and made the movie seem more…

You should really see Rushmore. If it's too precious for you, then go to Bottle Rocket. If you don't like either, he's just not for you.

I heard Kevin Smith say he respects writer-directors and doesn't give a shit about someone who is only a director because he doesn't think they know any better than he does.