Not quite a comedy, but still simply brilliant.

I laughed. Don't get me wrong. I laughed at all the cues intended. I'm not taking a "high and mighty" approach here.

But the filmmakers so brilliantly change the tone of the film at about the 45 minute mark, from a comedy about mid-western Americans, to a depressing obsession by a man who has more pressing (and realistic) needs. The movie is brilliant because the change isn't a light switch... it isn't simply "now it's a comedy, now it's dramatic."

It feels completely natural, and real.

And it so wonderfully stresses THE ENTIRE POINT of the movie... that this man was wasting his life filming this *little* (emphasis on little) movie, when he was unwittingly living a much larger movie himself.

Such an amazing concept.

I love it.

Simply loved it.

If you watched this movie, and walked away thinking "that's the funniest comedy I've seen in ages", do yourself a favor and watch it again. It is funny. No doubt. Hilarious in parts.

But it's not a comedy.

Not in the slightest.

It's exactly as someone in the movie (I forget who) said about "Northwestern" (which was also SO brilliantly used as a backdrop metaphor for what Mark was going through in his real life).

Something to the effect of: "It's a slice of life. How people here really are. A movie about real people."

I'm butchering the quote, but I can't find the scene in the movie.

Just a wonderful movie.

I can't believe a movie this good had been out ten years before I was even aware of it.