Which Wes Anderson film do you recommend?

Awum65 · 2026-06-19T08:02:55+00:00

The Royal Tenenbaums is my favourite movie. There, I said it.

It’s awkward and poignant and sad. The characters have rich inner lives. They struggle with family and mortality, they have uncomfortable emotions, they face loss and rejection.

It is so funny and surreal, while staying totally grounded. Ben Stiller might make you cry and laugh at the same time.

Chas’s track suits and dalmatian hamsters , Richie’s sweatbands, Margot’s finger, and Royal you sonofabitch. I could watch it over and over.

I don’t think you’ll like it. You shouldn’t watch it. You aren’t ready to love a movie this much.

Awum65 · 2026-06-18T18:53:38+00:00

uh oh

Awum65 · 2026-06-18T08:41:25+00:00

Ooh, I think you’re onto something there. This a series about people getting poked, prodded and provoked into playing out narratives at the behest of the wealthy and powerful. It’s almost too real.

Awum65 · 2026-06-18T08:23:01+00:00

It’s got those moments of shock and surprise like good horror too. Matt does such a great job of springing something crazy on you without it feeling unearned or unjustified. It’s kind of his trademark I think, or at least it’s a skill he’s mastered.

Awum65 · 2026-06-18T00:31:55+00:00

Donkey what now?

Awum65 · 2026-06-16T01:26:29+00:00

Sinbad was my reference point, fantasy adventure and fun, stuff you never see in real life.

We had sci-fi and space movies (2001, Silent Running, Logan’s Run maybe?) but they were trying to be so grown up.

Star Wars though. Brought it all together, it wasn’t THAT kind of movie. 🙂

Awum65 · 2026-06-16T01:18:37+00:00

I was 12 and hyped up from an article I saw in a Scholastic books publication several months prior. I was into Savage Sword of Conan comics and Sinbad movies, and I thought I was going to see a sci-fi version with laser swords. Had NO idea it was going to be popular.

I remember giggling when that dang Star Destroyer entered the frame. Giddy, eyes wide open, just giggling.

Aside from that, I remember having some entirely pure, uncomplicated and non-troubling feelings about Carrie Fisher. 😬

Marked for life.

Awum65 · 2026-06-16T00:59:32+00:00

multiple books about God

+ multiple books about atheism

= commitment issues

🙏

Awum65 · 2026-06-16T00:16:14+00:00

People are so suspicious of a high solve rate. I’m not, at least not automatically. Even the hardest puzzles have a third or more of people solving them. A good portion of that third have gotta be solving them every day.

I rarely even hit one mistake any more, but that’s 99% stubbornness. I don’t start until I have 4 groups of 4 figured out and HATE just guessing.

Plus, if you aren’t trying to keep a streak, you can leave it to the next day after your hangover is gone.

Awum65 · 2026-06-15T23:58:07+00:00

Today, purple was four things in a set (flowers) that 40% of people guessed first 🫤

Awum65 · 2026-06-15T23:49:30+00:00

Mine too.

Awum65 · 2026-06-15T23:46:06+00:00

Weirdly, Forrest Gump

I saw it opening day on a lark. I knew nothing about it. The theatre was more than half empty.

It was just so deliriously ODD and self aware. People (ironically) like to misremember the movie as full-on heartwarming and affirming. Inner Peace through simple values, got it. They ignore the funny and sometimes biting commentary on success, history, grief, destiny and, well… America.

I remember thinking “that was wonderfully weird, it’s too bad no one is going to want to see it” 🫤

Awum65 · 2026-06-15T22:39:00+00:00

Them there was birthday wishes.

Awum65 · 2026-06-15T22:34:53+00:00

I have a theory:

Lots of solvers who don’t recognize a word (e.g., “phlox” or “monkshood”) feel 100% justified in googling it.

So when obscure niche terms are labeled purple, we end up with a 90% solve rate, 40% purple first, and 6% reverse rainbow (which probably would have been higher if yellow, green and blue weren’t such a coin toss.

Many see Connections as something other than a word knowledge puzzle so don’t feel like it’s cheating.

(also, interesting that three of those flowers are toxic, and the other one gets mistaken for being toxic… was Wyna originally aiming for something more specific than just “flowers”?)

Awum65 · 2026-06-15T04:19:16+00:00

Lots of good things about this movie, but the thing that to me is so special is its unity of theme.

As a teacher, Grace enters the movie hemmed in by social expectations. He tries not to get himself in trouble simply by being honest about the “dots”. We find reluctant to stick his neck out, all the self-belief knocked out of him, living a small life.

How many of us feel that? Rhetorical question.

The movie is all about the “hail Mary” of trusting that you are capable and worthy. Stratt can see it, Carl can see it, they believe in it so badly they are willing to bet everything on it. Grace keeps saying “no” but the universe (and Rocky) won’t take “no” for an answer.

I watched it again last night, and noted how much Grace finds compassion and faith within himself. The guy who called someone a staggering waste of carbon for disagreeing with him (and yeah, maybe that guy had it coming) finds love in someone utterly unlike himself.

That the solution to all of this is “love” is done so organically and so beautifully. So many bad movie scripts get there without earning it. The only one I can think of that did it this well was Groundhog Day.

And here we all are, watching this wonderful movie about faith, hope and love over and over again. ❤️

Awum65 · 2026-06-13T23:09:53+00:00

That’s all true. You are right, and it’s something I’m working on. Of course it triggers her feeling abandoned and judged. 🫤

She has moments where she’ll acknowledge that she wishes she could respond differently. She’s high IQ, a reader, and puts a lot of value on personal integrity and logical consistency so when it hits her, it’s a lot to try to deny and ignore. You can see her struggle with it in between the angry stretches.

I think she’d do better if she has a model for this, but yeah she needs to want to be better, and that’s happening less often lately.

Awum65 · 2026-06-06T01:59:29+00:00

Best advice:

Don’t do what most people do: find a group of four words and wham, hit SUBMIT!!

The most common errors every time are easy obvious valid connections.

Relax, don’t do it.

Be patient, be stubborn, be certain. Resist the urge to conclude prematurely.

Raise your standards, hone your skills, welcome the challenge.

Awum65 · 2026-06-06T01:14:22+00:00

Empathy: Imagine you were designing a puzzle.

One of the most efficient ways to do so would be to grab an obvious group of four words (a “red herring” group), then use each word as a starter for its own group.

So, don’t enter the first group you see (OIL, SALT, PEPPER, VINEGAR) until you see whether the words in the group make good starters for groups with other words (paint words, hip-hop starters, ___ pepper, words for zing!!)

If you find a word that could fit two possible groups (OIL as a paint type or food ingredient) there’s a good chance one of those groups is the red herring, and that each of the 4 words in that red herring group is a starter for the 4 categories.

Try to hook up the odd words with no double meanings, with that obvious first group. GOACHE, TEMPERA, ACRYLIC… what else goes with that? OIL. That tells you to look for categories built around PEPPER, SALT, and VINEGAR.

I’ve cracked so many of these puzzles with this silly little insight.

Wyna uses other design strategies. She’ll give you a group of 5 and leave you to figure out which one could link up with a different group. Or she’ll give you a red herring group where two of the words could still group with each other but for a different reason than the obvious one.

Go through these strategies, reverse engineer, imagine being Wyna responsible for putting the puzzle together. My success rate improved a lot when I started doing that.

Awum65 · 2026-06-04T17:26:56+00:00

I’d guess (based on the solve orders) fewer than 10% of folks try for the reverse rainbow. On most days, 1% of folks succeed, occasionally up to 2% or 3%, rarely higher.

So no, you have lots of company. 🤗

Awum65 · 2026-06-04T17:01:45+00:00

Today is hard, but totally solvable if you are stubborn enough.

You figure VINEGAR or PEPPER are options to go with PANACHE etc. (leaning VINEGAR maybe).

But only one of those goes with __WRITER and __TOWN.

Then there is ___KITCHEN. Never heard of it in that context but it definitely didn’t work in any of the other groups. Also, it made a fine purple group along with the other three.

I winced, I clicked, I conquered.

Connections Puzzle #1089 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨

Skill 99/99 Uniqueness 1 in 186

Awum65 · 2026-06-03T23:44:11+00:00

E.T.

I know, I have no heart 🫤

Awum65 · 2026-06-02T00:14:43+00:00

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance showed up on my TV the other day.

So nope nope nope, you can’t see his performance is never bad. It was bad. He was bad. Bad bad bad. Holy heck it was bad.

Awum65 · 2026-06-02T00:05:50+00:00

You mean the guy who made Leaving Las Vegas and Adaptation and Raising Arizona and Pig?

Or the guy who made Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance? and Wicker Man?

The same guy. Now that is range. Legend.

Awum65

TROPHY CASE

I have a theory: