yea as i was watching i had in my mind like hard boiled detective, but after i read that, that was raymond chandler lol so i dont know dick about raymond carver lol i did like most of the movie, there were some slow bits that didnt work, but for a 3 hr movie it worked out. it was crazy shit, some stupid shit, but there was a good enough balance. what the movie impressed most onto me was how much paul thomas anderson has his nose firmly up altman's ass lol i mean you can see how much magnolia is a complete rip off of short cuts... arguably done better... but its pretty clear PTA loves altman.