John Hamburg’s direction and Lawrence Sher’s cinematography in I Love You, Man are amazing.

There’s one sequence when Paul Rudd’s character first visits the man cave at Jason Segal’s character’s home. They’re having a conversation downstairs, and the axis is established on the “south” side of the seated duo. But in this brilliantly choreographed and extremely subtle move, once Rudd returns to sit (in the same seat/position, mind you) after briefly standing during the middle of the conversation, they switch the axis to the “north” side of the duo. Here’s the thing – because the conversation was all part of the same contiguous scene, most directors wouldn’t have had the balls to change the axis, but they would have found, after Rudd return to the couch, that something was simply “off”. For whatever reason, and I have no idea what it is, the conversation works way better and smoother with the axis change than it would have without.

An example of a small detail that really helps polish a film.

Funny People was good and funny, but not in the same league as I Love You, Man.

Related posts:
I love Gary Busey.
I love the marriage of film and music
Man, I love coming-of-age movies.
That sound? 2 billion brown people simultaneously groaning.
Oh. So this is why people go batnuts for Broadway.