This was my favorite moment in Dead Man, even though it didn't really contribute much to the overall story. I think I liked and am still chewing on what the movie was trying to do: I don't think it quite made it. It was something like, but less than, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, how you stumble across something bizarre in a voyage and just pick it up and take it with you. Or shoot it. But too many long shots of people traversing the wilderness. Too much obvious elegy.

Spoiler alert

Edit: why don't I actually link to the article in question?

There's an awesome piece up at Feministe today about the Golden Globes and how women directors (in this case, Kathryn Bigelow) have some pretty systematic biases to overcome in getting credit for their work. And for the most part they have not gotten that credit. Even if you haven't seen any of the movies Sady's referencing, it's an amazing piece of work and worth reading.

Spoiler alert: Avatar is dumb, and The Hurt Locker is not.

"Avatar is a movie that’s designed to be seen, and understood, by everyone. Everybody understands that dinosaurs are awesome and corporate goons are bad and when they fight and go splodey, you root for the dinosaurs, especially if they are really cool-looking. And that’s the level Avatar operates on, and that’s fine."

vs.

"The Hurt Locker has better characters and scarier action scenes and it can definitively establish a man’s character and make a statement about the alienation of modern life and basically explain what the entire movie is about with a shot of a dude looking at some cereal in a grocery store. It is a movie that gets you very excited even though there are no dinosaur fights in it!"

Things you don't hear from Hollywood anymore

"You got a high school education, you're a smart man, you figure it out." - Panic in the Streets, circa 1950