The Derb Saturday evening Netflix movies have been getting strange lately. Last weekend’s choice, recommended by friends, was Lars and the Real Girl, a psychoanalytic drama set among those stoical, low-affect Fargo types up in the northern Plains. (Where, to re-quote Robert Putnam from page 18 of – yes! – WAD, “celebrating ‘diversity’ means inviting a few Norwegians to the annual Swedish picnic.”)

Anyone wants my opinion, I think psychoanalysis is bilge. The psychoanalytic theme isn’t annoyingly obtrusive here, though; and the story is not preposterous. It’s the kind of thing that might be true. We thought it was very well done. There’s something weirdly compelling about those Plains folk, something doggedly un-Gothic. H. P. Lovecraft would have gone nuts in a week if stranded there.

Individual reactions:

Mrs. Derb (at around 25 minutes in): Euiw!Me (a bit later): I want one!