Watched Nov 29, 2025. This Coen Brothers comedy of errors doesn’t get as much love as Fargo or The Big Lebowski, and maybe deservedly so, but I think it’s sharp, clever, and the high points still make me absolutely cackle. More explicitly politics-adjacent than other Coen joints, but I think it pairs well with interpretations of Lebowski as an allegory to the Gulf War. What if those in power are just as prone to petty, selfish squabbles as everyone else, and what happens to the innocent ones caught in the middle? (Pour one out for Richard Jenkins' pining gym manager)

Spouse made an excellent observation that it must have been fun for Joel to write a movie where his wife (the delightful Frances McDormand!) gets to bone down with George Clooney. Funny to see CD-Rs and Motorola RAZRs appropriately presented as relevant technology at probably the last possible moment in history you could do so. Also spot the poster of Vladimir Putin on the wall, then the relatively-new democratically-elected leader of Russia.

There’s probably an actual Drama School term for this, but the way that Brad Pitt plays a serious cool guy with deliberate, calculated movements and a hapless goofball by constantly fidgeting and darting his eyes around the room always makes me smile. I first saw this around the time that I was first getting into bike commuting so his delivery of “You think that’s a Schwinn!” remains very special to me.