Benefitted greatly from a second watch. It was also helpful to have my wife watching with me to help process the main problem I had with the central relationship, i.e., that I could not figure out why Anthony was attractive to Julie. The second watch and additional input helped me see the blend of Julie’s idealism, romanticism, insecurity, and youthful naïveté which could explain how this girl could fall for the roguish, mysterious, and challenging older man despite his big…

1) I’ve seen Adam Driver in a bad movie before. I know I have. But, every time I watch him, I feel like that isn’t possible because the fact that he is in a movie automatically makes it better. He deserves every ounce of praise and/or award he gets here. It’s an astounding performance.

2) Mostly based on #1, but the apartment scene is truly great.

3) The serving the papers scene is also a blast even if a bit…

This is one of those movies where it’s hard to separate the craft of what the filmmaker is doing from the content of the story she is telling. It was a perfect illustration of the conundrum: “Can I like a movie if I don’t like what’s happening in the movie.” I can get, as an application of the craft of filmmaking, that this was an accomplished work. It very much had the feel of fine European cinema and made some…