Watched this the day after the terrible news hit. I've seen it a million times, and I still laughed out loud even though I knew every inflection of every line before it was delivered. Marty reading out the album reviews, "I am as God made me, sir," and the sign giving a puppet show first billing over the band...so, so funny.

Rob Reiner was an important director to me. And I'm not saying that because I'm feeling emotional after his…

Oh, so this is the great 2026 movie that everyone is going to ignore, which will lead to me banging my head against the wall and wondering how in the hell I'm in the same species as other human beings.

The screenwriter in me wishes the story's structure was a bit less standardized, but I'm not going to nitpick anything I liked this much. Plus those conventions worked: you hate the villains, worry for the heroes, and root for love…

Incredibly well made for a first feature, even if it doesn't add up to much.

The performances, aided by Nolan's pacing and high standards, are what separates this from other debuts that came from outside of the studio system during the same period. There are plenty of directors who broke through in the 90s--Smith, Aronofsky, Burns, etc-- who used nonprofessional, well-meaning but clumsy actors whom we forgave due to the context of the production. Nolan, however, never makes us sit…