Fantastic job on this review, Dale -- expertly put together. It's interesting to witness how hard it is to achieve what someone like Payne achieves... and how difficult it is to pull off.

Thanks, Eric. Having reread Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism, I've become obsessed with idea of irony as a genre rather than merely an attitude. It seems like it's all around us but people just don't know how to talk about it. That may explain why someone as thoroughly given over to irony as Todd Solondz can't quite get it together to make a decently enjoyable picture. It's as if the various parts of his brain weren't communicating with each other. I give him credit for the effort, but prefer Payne, who knows exactly what it's all about.

I'm always reminded of an episode of The Simpsons when the topic of irony comes up:

Bully #1: Are you being ironic?
Bully #2: I don't even know anymore.

The safe answer for almost anybody is, "Yes, of course." Except maybe Sean Penn or Tim Robbins, but thinking about them gives me brain-gas so I won't even mention them.

Brain-gas? Is there anything you can take for that?

No cure, but irony's a pretty sure preventive.