I know! What's weird is I get this complaint the most in the columns where I'm trying to disguise my inner fanboy — and I thought I did a particularly poor job of doing so here. I mean, I pretty clearly love both the show and the film, as well as the boys responsible for them.

It seemed an apt point of comparison, given the directors and all. That said, when I pitched this column, I was going to compare Veronica Mars the TV series to Veronica Mars the film. This just seemed more "of the moment" since Winter Soldier was just released on DVD.

As I noted in the column, I'm more than happy to have that discussion in the comments. (A body can only write so much without exceeding his word limit, after all.) So how about we begin by disagreeing? I think there are a number of films in which recurring locations are used as a formal strategy — a "reset" button, if…

I'm not sure where you get that from that article, unless you mean that anytime anyone writes about film or television, they're inherently claiming their superiority to the thing the explicating.

The best part is that they're both played by Sam Raimi, if I'm remembering correctly.

I believe you've nailed it — they're due the second Thursday of every month, published the third.

I didn't think you were! I really did take it as a compliment that you thought my very long article was too short.

That would require a foresight I don't possess — I try to make these topical (hence the one on Louie when everyone was talking about that) or fit it in the scope of whatever the site's theme is (as with this one). I usually only know about two weeks before I have to submit what I'm going to write about.

I'll take it as a compliment that you thought a 2,000 word article ended suddenly.

the Coens like it when a story circles back around on itself, as this one does. They like to present the illusion or possibility of actual linear progression before throwing it away.

That said, the visual motif of circles and lines is about the least subtle thing about the movie

Actually, I hear tell it'll be the subject of the Internet Film School column this week.

I set up the first half of the film and suggested ways of reading the second half without actually telling you what to think, which is what a good teacher does in a school. This is called The Internet Film School, after all. No fair asking for cheat sheets.

Because I've never done so, no, not me. [THAT'S AN INVISIBLE LINK]

Or that humanity is congenitally anthropocentric and can't accept that, say, global warming will end our civilization, but life will evolve with us.

A sometimes brilliant, ultimately flawed allegory that really worked as a film. I wrote something about it, have it around here somewhere. Let me see if I can't dig up the link!

One was intentionally funny, the other unintentionally?

It's impossible for me to understand why this film isn't regarded as a laughingstock in the same world as Battlefield Earth.

the classroom scene to be positively smothering

1. You don't need an excuse to bash the National Review, just a day that ends in a "y."