He owes us nothing!

I'm going to respond to your Michael Cera post first, because it'll take less thought on my part and it's closing in on 3 a.m. on the East Coast.

I'm very, very ambivalent about this on-again-off-again, will-they-won't-they Arrested Development movie. On the one hand, you know how much I love the gang from Newport Beach (I'd call it the O.C., but I know Michael Bluth wouldn't like that). I would've loved for the TV series to have continued on for many happy years. But on the other hand, what we have now—the three seasons (OK, effectively two and a half) broadcast on Fox—forms a kind of coherent, self-contained whole. What will tacking two more hours on to that really add, especially considering the years that've past since the series was cancelled and everyone went their separate ways? To live up to expectations they've created (both by coming off from a masterpiece of TV comedy and by giving rise to months of controversy), they'd have to continue where the series left off, but they can't just spend two hours tying up loose ends from the series or giving favorite minor characters cameos. They'd have to make a movie that both flows seamlessly from the series and stands on its own two feet. Anything less, and it'd be like following M*A*S*H with AfterMASH, Happy Days with Joanie Loves Chachi, or Seinfeld with that cast's subsequent careers. The only example I can think of where this feat was pulled off was the first X-Files movie; the graveyards and landfills of Hollywood history of full of examples that couldn't pull it off.

So I guess you could say I'll be happy either way. If they finally end up making the thing, I'll throw ten bucks down for it in an instant; if they don't, I'll be perfectly content with the Bluths' story ending where it did on the last episode of Season 3. Granted, it's been a little frustrating seeing Michael Cera, who has so much comedic talent, playing George Michael over and over, but from what I've heard about the upcoming Scott Pilgrim adaptation (directed by the great Edgar Wright), he'll have to broaden himself a bit for the title role; I haven't read the comics (yet), but apparently Scott Pilgrim is no George Michael Bluth.

P.S. — Thank you for not making your post about Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I haven't seen it, and I have no intention to.

P.P.S. — And no, I haven't ignored your anti-indie rant; it's just that it's very late, I have class tomorrow morning (or at this point, later this morning), and sleep beckons.