I did something I really rarely do. I watched a movie based on mumblings and automatic recommendations with no prior knowledge of it, and then watched it through again with the commentary track. Partially, that’s because Kevin Smith did it with Richard Kelly.

I’m not going to review or describe the movie–it is not for everybody. Most people I know who should see it will already have seen it, because I’m always suspicious of cult stuff or critic-approved movies (I find Woody Allen completely overrated–amusing like The New Yorker, not hilarious and deep like Brazil). So when people tell me I’ve got to see something, I tend to resist.

Fortunately after the hype dies down I’ll give something a chance when it looks like it’s going to last, and I’m always happy to admit when I’ve been wrong. Firefly was one; Donnie Darko is another. So if you tend to like the films I like, get this and see it. Particularly if you liked Brazil, you’ll like this.

So it’s not for Ginger, with whom I was discussing Brazil today.

Update: I forgot to mention–I focused in on the “Eye” imagery in the director’s cut, and the computer code that goes by is a stack trace from either a Mac OS X box or a NeXT box–lots of references to the Mach microkernel. Sorry, Linus.