Barton Fink vs. Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) vs. Broken Flowers

Just three random movies I've happened to see lately.

* Barton Fink is more or less the only Coen Brothers movie I watched and didn't immediately love; I last saw it as a high school senior in my father's basement, and our entire gathered audience agreed afterwards it sort of sucked. But over the years I've heard people insist that Barton Fink is not just underrated but actually the best of the Coen Brothers movies. So I gave it another shot.

Honestly, it really does sort of suck. It has its moments -- I definitely found a lot more to enjoy in the elaborate parody of writerly pretention this time around -- but it's no Lebowski or Hudsucker or Man Who Wasn't There. (Or Fargo or O Brother or Raising Arizona, &c.)

* Stop me if you've seen this one: In Broken Flowers, Bill Murray is an embittered aging man who may or may not have fathered a son he never knew. But despite the striking similarity to the characters Murray recently played in Rushmore, Life Aquatic, and Lost in Translation (among others), the movie is quite good and definitely worth seeing. Damned if it doesn't feel a little bit like déjà vu, though.

* Gigantic wins from pure, unadultered geeky delight. It's just two fun hours of people talking about They Might Be Giants and They Might Be Giants talking about themselves. Very enjoyable. You may need to have gone to (several) TMBG shows to really get it, though; I'll never forget my first one, and this brought back some very geeky joy.