BOB ODENKIRK: We had to discover that. Without that this thing would just float away. On its surface, if you try to explain this movie to somebody—there are greeting cards, and there’s murder—it sounds like the lightest fantasy ever. The whole thing would just float away. For things like the murder—the murder has to drive Ray. Ray has to care about that murder and get all fucked up inside because this guy dies in his arms.

So in order for us to connect with Ray and his struggle, everything in that world had to have a certain gravity to it. Also, that music invokes noir film in such a classic way, which just helps your brain to understand that this is a pulpy, noir tale and that there will be a bad guy, a gun, whatever. It’s weird because if you look at the page, you can imagine a broader, sillier performance version of this, but you wouldn’t care about that. So hopefully the way that we approached this, and in particular how Michael goes about shooting it, it can sustain you through how very silly it is.

You mention all those disparate elements of the film and I do think it leads to this Coen Brothers sort of quality, too. It’s this ultra-dry sense of humor that’s really hard to define.

MICHAEL PAUL STEPHENSON: Coen Brothers were a big touchstone. We’re obviously fans. Bob and I talked about them a lot. I would argue that the only difference is that sometimes the Coen Brothers don’t like their characters, but we want you to appreciate each of these weird characters from this world. There’s something genuine about all of them. So there’s a lot of Coen Brothers, but it’s also just classic to elevate your characters and make them larger than life.

BOB ODENKIRK: And there’s this dark undertow to it that allows you to do pretty madcap stuff. And the world still has stakes because of that darkness that runs throughout. And yes, Coen Brothers were a reference point throughout the entire movie, as was the movie Being There.