Run, schmuck.

Loser theory, part II.

Telling the truth can be dangerous business.
Honest and popular don't go hand in hand.
If you admit that you can play the accordion,
No one’ll hire you in a rock ‘n’ roll band.

But we can sing our hearts out
And if we’re lucky, then no neighbors complain.
Nobody knows where the beginning part starts out
But being human we can live with the pain.…
—“Dangerous Business,” Rogers & Clark

Elaine May¹ has four films and I think they all have this one thing in common: In a purportedly intimate relationship, one person knows something pretty dark—something that would basically change the relationship—but they don’t tell. Fine, somebody having a big secret is a formula that stretches past Hitchcock. But in her first film, May takes an interesting step: she casts herself as the dummy.

Not as stupid. In this first film, A New Leaf, she plays a quietly oblivious, incredibly clumsy botanist who discovers a new species. She’s playing a smart character for sure. But she’s also the mark: Walter Matthau courts…