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Published Oct 24, 2026, 6:15 PM EDT
In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio.
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Few actors have a better reputation than Emma Stone. She might be just 37 years old, but the star of Birdman and The Favourite has already picked up two Academy Awards for Best Actress, first for 2016's La La Land and secondly for 2023's Poor Things. Her talent was on display once again in her most recent performance as high-powered CEO Michelle Fuller in the science fiction satire Bugonia.
A remake of Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 South Korean comedy Save the Green Planet!, Bugonia was a wild, timely sci-fi effort from Greek writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos, a long-time collaborator with Stone and a five-time Oscar nominee in his own right. Called "an essential film about the world we live in and just how insane and hopeless it can feel at times" by Collider's Ross Bonaime in his review, Bugonia was a critically acclaimed gem that earned Stone yet another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. But all these accolades simply wouldn't have been possible without the performance that first put Stone on the map.
Back in 2007, an unknown Stone featured in a stacked comedy ensemble in Superbad, one of the defining comedies of the 21st century. A hugely important movie in the career of producer Judd Apatow, the film stars Michael Cera and Jonah Hill as two teenagers who, quite simply, want to get laid before the end of school. Also starring Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the film is considered today a major milestone for comedy, helping reshape the landscape of the genre in cinema and spawning many successful thematic copycats. At the time of writing, Superbad is one of the ten most-watched movies on HBO Max worldwide.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Coen Brothers Movie Would You Thrive In? Lebowski · O Brother · Fargo · No Country
Nobody writes people like the Coen brothers. The decent ones. The talkers. The ones who stopped trying years ago. And the ones who can already see how bad this is going to get. Four films, four completely different ways of handling trouble. Eight questions decide which one you would actually walk out of.
🎳Lebowski(1998)
🎸O Brother(2000)
❄️Fargo(1996)
🪙No Country(2007)
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
A bag of money lands in your lap. What happens next? Every Coen film starts roughly here. It never goes smoothly.
AI do not overthink it. Rent is paid, evening is free. BI have a plan for this. It involves other people. CI hand it in. Somebody is looking for this. DI am gone before anyone knows I have it.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Somebody is being completely unreasonable with you. How does it go? Coen dialogue is mostly people failing to understand each other.
AI let it go. It is not worth the energy. BI talk. At length. Until they are on my side. CI stay polite and repeat myself until they hear me. DI stop talking. Talking has not been working.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What is your actual relationship with work? Everyone in these films is either working far too hard or not at all.
AI have arranged things so I do as little as possible. BI would rather chase one big idea than hold a steady job. CI do it properly, including the boring parts. DIt pays. I do not need it to mean anything.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Long drive, bad weather, nobody else on the road. How are you? There is always a drive in these films. It is never a good drive.
AMusic on, in no hurry, perfectly content. BTalking the whole way, whether anybody answers or not. CBoth hands on the wheel, checking everyone is warm enough. DQuiet, watching the mirrors.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
You are offered a shortcut that is not quite legal. This is the moment where the Coens find out who you really are.
ANo, but not on principle. It sounds like effort. BYes, and I will make it sound like a great idea. CNo. And I would probably say something about it. DOnly if I am certain nobody finds out.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
The plan has fallen apart completely. What is your move? In a Coen film the plan always falls apart. That is the genre.
AOrder a drink and let things settle down. BImprovise loudly and hope momentum carries it. CStart again from the beginning and do it right. DCut my losses and leave before it gets worse.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Which of these sounds most like something you would say? Nobody writes a line quite like the Coens. Which one is yours?
AIt is really not that serious. BTrust me, I have thought about this. CI just think we could all be a bit kinder. DThat was always going to happen.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
How does your film end? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your movie.
ANothing is resolved and I am completely fine with it. BA ridiculous piece of luck saves everybody. CQuietly, at home, with somebody I love. DSomebody older admits they no longer understand the world.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Verdict Is In Your Coen Film Is…
Four films, four completely different ways of handling money, trouble and other people. This is the one you would survive, why it suits you, and what it would cost you to be there.
The Big Lebowski
You have quietly arranged your life so that very little can get to you, and a surprising number of people find that infuriating. You would be completely at home here.
- The Dude is the only person in the film with no ambition, and the only one who comes out the other side undamaged. That is not an accident.
- You do not chase things. You let situations arrive and you deal with them at your own pace, which is a genuine skill however lazy it looks.
- This is a full crime plot happening around a man who mostly wants his rug back, and that is exactly the energy you would bring to it.
- Everything goes wrong. You abide. The film ends.
O Brother
You talk your way through life and it works far more often than it should. Give you a bad situation and an audience and you will find a way out of both at once.
- Everett never has a plan that survives contact with reality. He has something better, which is the ability to keep talking until a new one turns up.
- You are the optimist in the group, the one who makes a ridiculous idea sound reasonable at two in the morning.
- This is the warmest film the Coens have made. It is a chase, a comedy and a musical at once, and nobody in it is quite beyond saving.
- You would end up famous entirely by accident, and act like you planned it all along.
Fargo
You would survive Fargo because you are the only kind of person who does: patient, decent, and completely unimpressed by anybody trying to be clever.
- Marge Gunderson solves the whole case by being polite, thorough and unhurried while everybody around her panics. That is the entire argument of the film.
- You do the boring parts of the job, which is precisely why you would notice the thing everyone else walked straight past.
- Fargo is about ordinary greed causing enormous damage, and about one person who simply refuses to be corrupted by any of it.
- You would go home at the end of it, have dinner, and sleep perfectly well.
No Country
You do not expect the world to be fair and you stopped being surprised about it a long time ago. That clear-eyed quality is exactly what this film asks for.
- No Country is the Coens at their coldest: a film where being smart, fast and careful might still not be anywhere near enough.
- You plan for the worst, you keep your own counsel, and some part of you is already working out the exit.
- Llewelyn Moss is competent, prepared and resourceful, and the film is honest about whether any of that is ever sufficient.
- You would see it coming. Whether that helps is the one question the film refuses to answer.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
How Much Did 'Superbad' Make at the Box Office?
Some comedies have to wait until time helps them become cult classics. For Superbad, the success was instant. Made for a reported production budget of just $17.5 million, the film returned a global haul of $170 million, split between $121 million in domestic revenue and a further $49 million from overseas markets. The movie opened at #1 at the North American box office, retaining its top spot for a second week before eventually losing to a debuting Halloween.
Superbad is one of the ten most-watched movies on HBO Max worldwide. Stay tuned to Collider for more.
Release Date August 17, 2007
Runtime 113 minutes
Director Greg Mottola
