So I was at a social event yesterday, and the question came up, as it will, "Anything I should see?"
When that question comes up, you pretty much know that the questioner isn't necessarily soliciting your recommendation of, say, The Duchess of Langeais or Paranoid Park or Chop Shop, to name three noteworthy films that have already opened this year. Never mind the vexed and vexing question as to whether any of these films could find its way out of the highly circumscribed arthouse circuit in the U.S., the fact of the matter is that cinephilia in this time and place is also highly circumscribed, and the cinephile is plugged in enough that a) he or she is already well aware of the existence of these pictures and b) he or she is not so much likely to ask for my recommendations at a social event as he or she is to confront me about being completely in the tank for Rivette, or some such.
And I know that asking me for a movie recommendation is a form of default small talk in any case, but I was a little taken aback with myself to find myself absolutely stumped by the question. When Time's Richard Corliss asked on February 15, "Will there be a good movie this year?" I thought he was being a little premature, and he also answered his own question by citing The Band's Visit and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Now, a month later, looking at this weekend's box office top ten, I give a little shiver. Hell, by this time last year we had at least had a Zodiac to champion. I mean, The Bank Job is pretty diverting, but I've gotta think twice about recommending that to, say, a guy with a new addition to his family who's just been telling me how blown away he was by No Country For Old Men, a movie he's only now gotten around to because, among other things, he's got a new addition to his family. I figure I've gotta give this fellow something that's going to be THAT MUCH WORTH his ever-dwindling time. Doncha think?
And then, what about me? Do I have to wait until Cannes before I see anything I'll get really excited about—Cannes, where last year I saw, well whaddya know, No Country, Paranoid Park, The Band's Visit (which, come to think of it, would have made a not-too-left-field recommendation), etc., for the first time? Meaning I, we, whoever, have another two months of drillbitting, road-tripping, Brown-meeting, Who-hearing, not-backing-down crap to account for?
Yeesh. Am I missing something here?
Then again, I could just tell everyone to go see Funny Games, thus insuring that I'm never invited to another social event ever again...

Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet want you to know that movies are still your best entertainment value...
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