I want you to picture a bullet in your head. Can you do that for me?

An uproarious neo noir-comedy masterpiece that nails every single tone Black deftly skips it across. The entire ensemble's working at the top of their game (particularly Kilmer, who was born to play Perry and should've taken home every Supporting Actor award in the book for his absolutely-riotous-but-still-somehow-perfectly-grounded-in-reality performance), the script is utterly brilliant†—both a satire of gossamer-thin mystery-thrillers and an expertly twisty one itself—and it all just...works. It's one of the funniest movies of all time and a whodunit with so much slyly acidic heart, you have no choice but to not only fall for, but actually *care* about the good guys. It's one of my true blue favorites.

†Though, yes, the three moments of actual, depressingly mid-aughts homophobia still very much piss me off (read: when Harry is quickly grossed out by Perry's high school one-that-got-away being another boy [like, fucking duh, Harry], the cop's Doris and Lucinda "joke" when he spots them kissing, and Harry cartoonishly retching after said kiss). They're the only dull spots in an otherwise sparkling gem.

98