In Magnolia's Wonderful World, Matthew Broderick plays Ben Singer, a would-be professional children's folk singer in his forties with a dead-end job and no prospects. He has a profoundly cynical view of the world and alleges that The Man is always out to get everyone down. The Man is played by Phillip Baker Hall (not a joke).

Ben is a divorcee and has his daughter on occasional weekends, wherein he continues to poison her optimistic view of the world. He has a Senegalese roommate named Ibou who challenges him at every negative thought, but Ben bats him away every time. Ibou's sister Khadi (Sanaa Lathan) appears after Ibou takes ill and takes his place in trying to turn Ben around on the world.

In a way, Wonderful World plays like an alternate universe spin on what Greenberg is trying to do: take a disillusioned 40ish man and question his cynical, aimless lifestyle by throwing an attractive younger woman at him. The thing that kept coming into my head while watching was that I felt like I was seeing a decade-later, more downtrodden look at Broderick's character from Election, but without any of the comedy.

There a very satisfying courtroom speech Broderick gives that manages to work in talk about box office grosses that speaks to how everything revolves around big huge financial numbers and nothing else seems to matter. I was surprised to find out that director Goldin was a credited writer on Darkman, which certainly features a lot of trademark Raimi flourishes, but I could sense some spiritual connection between the more grounded dialogue there and the same type of writing here.

Extras on the Blu-ray include a Behind the Scenes Montage as well as featurettes As Soon As Fish Fall From the Sky: Character & Story and Behind the Scenes: Working with Writer/Director Josh Goldin and Actor Matthew Broderick. Give it a look, since it really isn't on the radar of most.