On the one hand he wants to make quirky throwbacks to the great 70s films, which were driven by character and not plot. (To see a true depiction of a rootless soul, try Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces, an astonishing film.) But on the other hand, he likes to leave his audiences happy (or even with films with not-exactly-happy endings, he likes to not ruffle them too much) — he isn’t interested, for instance, in the irony of a “firing expert” who may end up getting fired due to a new technology.