I think that's probably a good point, particularly about his old stuff, which really was in sort of a subgenre of sad bastard music alongside Jason Molina and Damien Jurado. This is decidedly more pop and also begs you to listen to it at least once just to see what this weirdo is all about, even if it's just a hate…

well, if we say Nilsson Sings Newman, it's the best of both worlds

I get why the FJM is more popular — the lyrics are like reading someone's personal blog or twitter account, but he's kept the singing and songwriting chops. I do not get the appeal of (most) of the latter day SKM—although the album with the Album Leaf guy was very good. But he's basically stopped singing or really…

That's specifically where he wanted to go. The Pritchetts stuck in red state Americana seems to have potential. Phil would absolutely want to stay.

This may be the first movie I snuck into as well. The opening Traci Lords scene is pretty fucking badass. I have to admit even being a little bit scared in parts.

Cooper's role was kinda like, what if we write a role for Vince Vaughn, but have none of his one-liners (since he isn't around to improv them), keep all of his "I'm the fucking man" attitude and make him better looking to the point where you wonder how this guy is even friends with the other three?

Funny to compare the two, as I always thought Sudeikis had a more Chevy Chase style about him and probably should have played Rusty in that abysmal reboot.

Honestly surprised movies he's starring in continue to get made. He is the least essential person in the Hangover cast and he was terrible as the lead of The Office for those seasons (to be fair, the writing was also bad and he was pretty good when Andy was just a supporting role).

Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest it's bad, it's fine. I'm sure Braff saw it more as a calling card to show Hollywood he can do drama and write/direct than be some generation defining statement—but it became a phenomenon and it just doesn't hold up under the weight of that much attention.

I heard Eric Stonestreet in an interview say he wanted their next family vacation episode to be to Branson, Missouri. I strongly support this idea.

That outfit was so frumpy I wondered if it might even be an in-joke meant to contrast Ms. Winter's off-camera persona. That's probably giving the producers too much credit.

Garden State is one of those small indies that is good on first watch but doesn't hold up to scrutiny; and because it became such a hit, it was scrutinized more than anyone involved probably imagined. It's mostly just a sweet little indie, probably something that should have come and gone quickly and been rediscovered…

Ah, gotcha

I would agree, but some people are terrified of clowns regardless of context, which is one of those phobias I can't wrap my head around.

All good points and legitimate concerns. I guess I also think he may just be a guy who is very good at executing what a director wants without trying to exert his own authorship over the script. Another way of saying that is he's as good as the director he's working with. I'm guessing even if Villeneuve's name isn't…

Benjamin Button seemed like Fincher wanted to make a Forrest Gump-like story but with less humor/satire (or what passes for satire). I think Roth was hired to give him that Forrest Gump feeling.

If nothing else, Roth took a book that was not great and made a pretty good movie out of it.

Roth doesn't seem to have a strong authorial voice, but seems to be a good collaborator for some great filmmakers (and I lay the blame for stuff like Postman and Benjamin Button more at the director's feet than Roth's). He's done very good work with Michael Mann; I suspect Villenveuve wants someone like that.

Yeah, I remember quite enjoying the Bozo the Clown show on WGN as a kid, and I grew up in the late '80s/'90s. I still don't find clowns scary in and of themselves, but they certainly can be in the right context/with the right makeup.

Right, which is why I said "frankenstein monster of a script." I believe Weaver had it in her contract that Hill and Giler had to write the final shooting script or something and so they basically took bits from David Twohy's version and their version and probably other versions and came up with something which was…