DVD Case Pantheon: Magnolia

Some of my favorite films are tightly built. They clock in at about 90 minutes, leave absolutely nothing inessential in the story, and yet still find time to have well developed characters. There is usually one main story line featuring a minimum of characters. Urgency and consequences are the name of the game.

DVD Case Pantheon: Punch Drunk Love

These days, an "Adam Sandler movie" is synonymous to many film lovers with laziness. It tends to evoke sloppy crapfests full of awful animal gags, gay panic jokes, and an excuse for Sandler and his friends to take a vacation while filming*. Save for the incredibly long (and often tedious) Funny People, he really hasn't stretched his limits too far in a while. Which makes Punch Drunk Love kind of an anomaly, a blip in his career that makes me wish he'd expand his horizons more often. Or at least work with better directors.