My main wish for that film was that it was much shorter, had an entirely different plot, script, and director, and that I would forget having lived in this universe where this version existed. Other than that, it was terrific.

SNY may be my least favorite film ever. It's certainly down there.

Meanwhile, I saw a not-so-hot 1989 comedy called The 'Burbs as part of a Tom Hanks retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Since I generally like Hanks in comedy and sorta dislike him in drama (including his two Oscarwinning roles), I was looking forward to this one, which I'd never seen. And since it co-stars one of my favorite living actors Bruce Dern, so much the better.

Well, it's not terrible. There are some very funny, very loony sequences in this story of a cul-de-sac whose inhabitants get obsessed with the idea that their new neighbors comprise a murderous cult. Joe Dante directs it like a live-action cartoon and Hanks and Dern play it that way, along with Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, and notably Henry Gibson. Hanks's wife is played with almost preternatural blandness by Carrie Fisher, who is much funnier as a human being and writer than she is as an actor.

The movie is uneven but intermittently watchable amid long dull stretches.

While you are correct, Whiskey, I have to come to Billy's defense--"comprise" is a perfectly proper word in that context.

The Cuckoo (Russia, 2002).
In the waning days of WWII, a Russian and a Finnish soldier separately wind up at the farm of a Lapp woman, who is earthy and practical and damn glad to see a man. Her husband was drafted into the war 4 years prior, fate unknown. I liked the buildup, where both soldiers are prisoners but manage to escape in rather different but excruciating circumstances. One odd facet of the film is how the three central characters all speak different languages and don't understand each other*. So they are often at cross-purposes and working under misunderstandings, most seriously the Russian soldier believing the Finn is a German soldier. The rustic setting is rather beautiful and the farm's layout is rather ingenious -- there's a treehouse barn, a fish labyrinth/kraal. The film manages to combine drama, humor and romance quite well. I also liked the pace, as the film didn't rush anything, but also didn't drag.

Re-watched Nebraska.
Very good film......B&W was the right choice....