The way the credits cling to the edges of the frame.
Dan Hedaya saying "Irreconcilable sexual disharmony!"
The stunning title card...
...which is immediately followed by this beautiful shot.
Also of note: the Sneaker Pimps' song "Velvet Divorce" that plays throughout this sequence.
The look Ian McNeice gives as he knowingly polishes that apple.
This perfect visual summation of an offscreen event.
"You're fired!"
Look at how her head is enclosed directly above "Employees Only" while Robert's side of the frame is wide open. He may be fired, but now he's free.
How Tony Shalhoub's bar owner Al wordlessly pours Robert a shot after witnessing Lily leaving.
"We can do this with or without violence, it's up to you. The client pays our medical bills but not yours. Well?"
Nick covered Holly Hunter's performance pretty well in his post, but I have to say her choice of weird vocal affectation whenever she's playing her role-within-role is awe-inspiring.
This camera angle.
The way the cleaning robot keeps repeating "Eleven" while this scene is happening.
Robert's face as his big moment has an anticlimax.
"He cut in on me!"
"Mirror, signal, maneuver."
I said I wouldn't repeat Nick, but Walt really is the greatest.
Reality starting to dawn on Robert while Walt goes about his helpful business (even if Walt does end up leaving one small streak behind).
A scenic hideaway.
Robert reading a bad romance novel while Celine chops firewood.
"He gasps..."
"Ow, fuck!"
"...in shock and delight."
The interplay of Robert's scenes with O'Reilly's voiceover is masterful.
"Yes, I've read the same thing; it's very hard to find suitable young men these days. Well I'm sure your daughter's very nice and in principle I've got no objections to meeting her..."
The entire scene in the phone booth is great, but his wrong number gets me every time.
Robert's utter confusion.
An impossibly baby-faced Timothy Olyphant.
Robert's cartwheel in the dust.
The sound the bag makes as it's pulled along the road.
"Aw, damn."
"Have you ever felt like you're not in control of events?"
"Yes!"
Elliot's head bandage.
"I'm sure you'll probably pass out as the pain gets worse."
Judith Ivey's five second cameo where she never faces the camera.
O'Reilly's back-slapping laughter at Jackson's terrible poem.
"The issue of whether or not she's your type is not one that you're likely to have to resolve in this world... or, indeed, the next, since she will be going to some Heaven for glamorous pussy, and you will be cleaning the floor of a diner in Hell."
This shot.
Celine's shock and delirious laughter when she's dealt a nearly impossible winning hand in Jackson's very one-sided blackjack game.
"This is Gabriel. Get me God."
That clear plastic phone alone should have won somebody in the props department an award.
The slow push in to Celine's face during this shot.
Breaking the fourth wall...or perhaps not.
Claymation epilogue, because why not.
1 comment:
Well, I mean all of these. But this one especially..."This perfect visual summation of an offscreen event." I really, really like that one. Perhaps we can still turn the masses toward A Life Less Ordinary.
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