Where’s The Ambition?

AO Scott finds much to like in this year’s New Directors/New Films program. But “as I watched the selections scheduled for its first week, I found myself wishing, in too many cases, that the movies would try harder, risk more, challenge themselves and their audiences. Instead, most of them seemed to hew to familiar themes and strategies, as though they were genre movies for an art-film crowd.”

Blockbusteritis

“There seems to be a schism opening up between the idea of attending an event and the actual experience. People appear to care more about gaining evidence of their presence at a cultural landmark than drinking in its pleasures. They want a photograph of themselves in front of the museum or even the star exhibit; they want the souvenir mousemat; in short they want its autograph. The erratic organic memory of looking at beauty seems to have been downgraded to a supporting role.”