melancholy

I really do like this a lot. About as good as these things get (not intended to be faint praise). Half a star bump.

Kaufman’s least immediately legible film, and potentially his most rewarding for it. I didn’t clock how the Jake scenes and the janitor scenes connected until the credits rolled, which may be the point or may just be me being slow—either way, I want to come back to it, just not yet. I suspect a lot more clicks if you’ve got the full reference shelf to hand (David Foster Wallace, Pauline Kael, Wordsworth, A Beautiful Mind, the musicals, etc), rather than catching half like I did. Buckley and Plemons are fantastic, and Collette and Thewlis match them on a fraction of the screen time.

Perfect. Wouldn’t change a frame. Probably my favourite film—can’t think of anything I’d place higher

Watched on Saturday March 7, 2026.

100 minutes spent rooting for one of the worst guys

Watched on Monday December 29, 2025.

I had exceedingly low expectations and it just about surpassed them.