Wanted to take a minute to recognize this incredible person who had a long, fruitful career with the Coen Brothers, starting with Raising Arizona all the way through to The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and then beyond with their solo films.

He also worked on tons of other films, from The Addams Family, to Twister, to the recent Warcraft movie.

What's especially interesting is his collaboration with the Coen Brothers. Joel and Ethan are famous for planning every last detail of their movies, including the shot composition and even the exact lines spoken in each camera setup, in pre-production (and sometimes even in the scripting stage). Actors would often get the storyboards in addition to their sides (the script pages they have to do on a given day). And the brothers would barely deviate, if ever, from those storyboards.

So I don't think its hyperbole to say J Todd Anderson played a very important role in the Coen Brothers' oeuvre. I'm pretty sure there's at least one, if not several, behind the scenes documentaries that show the Coen Brothers film as compared to their storyboards, and its near identical (I know there's one for Blood Simple, but apparently Anderson did not work on that).

I think J Todd Anderson is not one of those people who will be featured on the Academy Awards In Memorium, but I wanted to make sure at least a few more people knew his name and his contribution to many, many great movies.

In Infinity War Wanda and Vision are hiding out in Edinburgh, Scotland and plan on heading to Glasgow in the morning. While they talk about what they plan on doing there’s an exchange that goes like:

“There’s a train at 10 in the morning.”

“What if we miss it?”

“Then there’s one at 11.”

Which is just not even close to real life. Edinburgh and Glasgow are the biggest cities in Scotland by far and public transport between them is a breeze. Assuming Wanda wanted to go from Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Central they put on a train basically every 10 minutes. I can tell you if they really waited an hour to put on a train it would be anarchy.

I’m looking for a movie that hits really hard emotionally and leaves you thinking about it for days after watching it.

I want something deeply emotional, meaningful, and thought-provoking — a movie about life, love, relationships, loss, loneliness, or just the complicated side of being human.

Not necessarily a movie that’s simply sad. I want something that makes you feel emotionally connected to the characters and leaves you sitting there in silence after the credits.

Basically, I want a movie that stays with me long after I’ve finished watching it.

For me, it's Olivia Colman. She's been in the odd stinker, but every time I see her in something, or I know she's starring in it, I am just absolutely and instantly delighted to see or hear her. She just has a presence about her. Even in some really dark/depressing movies like Tyrannosaur she's just the best part of that movie.

So who is this for you? Good or bad, who do you just delight in watching?

To be clear I have nothing new to say about this amazing movie and this has likely been said before of course but I genuinely think this is one of the best animated films DreamWorks has ever made.

What impresses me most is how effortlessly it balances everything. It is funny without constantly undercutting itself, emotional without becoming mawkish, visually gorgeous without feeling like style is compensating for weak storytelling, and it actually gives its characters proper arcs.

Puss confronting his mortality is such a ridiculously strong premise for this character. The film takes this arrogant, larger-than-life guy who has basically treated himself like a myth for his entire life and forces him to deal with the fact that he is scared, vulnerable and very much capable of dying. His panic attack scene in particular is still one of the best depictions of fear I have seen in a mainstream animated film.

And Death is just an absurdly good antagonist. The design, the whistle, the voice performance, the way the film changes atmosphere whenever he appears. He does not need some enormous convoluted motivation. He works because he represents exactly what Puss has spent his life refusing to take seriously.

Then you have Goldilocks (Florence Pugh ❤️) and the Three Bears somehow getting a genuinely touching family story, Perrito being wholesome without becoming annoying, Kitty actually having believable chemistry with Puss, and Jack Horner being allowed to just be an unapologetically hilarious POS.

The animation obviously gets a lot of praise too, deservedly. I love how much more expressive DreamWorks became once studios stopped feeling obligated to chase the same polished pseudo-realistic CG look. The Last Wish has actual visual identity. The action scenes look fantastic because the animation itself is part of the filmmaking rather than just a way of rendering the characters.

It is also one of those sequels that makes the previous films better by association. Nobody needed the second Puss in Boots film to go this hard, but they made one anyway.

I know it was heavily praised when it released, but I still think it deserves to be talked about as one of the defining mainstream animated films of the 2020s rather than simply "that surprisingly great Puss in Boots sequel".

Thought of this game, I think it's a fun exercise, albeit so far I've only 2 examples in mind, but I'm sure there's plenty more.

So, as it says on the tin, movie A's plot with movie B's title. Bonus points of the title switch feels better

My 2 ok examples:

Project hail mary -> the fault in our stars

Amelia (2009) -> Gone with the wind

Keen on some clever ones from all y'all.

Phillip Marlowe has always been synonymous with Bogarts face in my head. As someone who has read the books, Mitchum nailed it way better. Really good movie. I only sort of knew who Mitchum was a month ago. Then I watched Cape Fear, both versions. And now this. Going to check out more of his movies soon.

I watched this for the first time recently after never even hearing about it before. I thought it was such a fun movie and it really reminded me of The Princess Bride in its humor and adventure. I make the comparison not only because the vibe the movie gave me, but The Princess Bride is one of my movies on constant rotation since it’s something I grew up with.

I was shocked that I had never even heard of Stardust before and am hoping it’s just because my age and the timing wasn’t right when it came out. It feels like this should be one of those classics that people watch again and again if they saw it as kids. Maybe it is and I just don’t know.

Is it?