The Importance of Purity

I do think that nihilism runs throughout the film, and that maybe they're not all nihilists. They all seem dimly aware of its meaninglessness. And so there's a kind of purity he's striving for reflected in his early idealism. Like, oh, I'm not compromised. I refuse to be compromised. My garbagey rug really tight the room together. He most shows his agency when he complains about his buddy Walter screwing everything up. But then we learn at the very end that all right, he's actually only converted to Judaism for his ex-wife.