Dana Stevens | “In The Simpsons Movie, when Bart’s wanger peeped out for a second from behind an artfully arranged lineup of fences, ladders, and hedgerows, only to disappear once more, it was one of those moments when you’re grateful to be part of an audience, whooping as one. Grindhouse understood that moviegoing pleasure too. Robert Rodriguez’s half even paid tribute to the pops, scratches, and shitty projection that make seeing a film ‘in person’ a little bit like live theater: A bunch of people gather before a proscenium stage where something can actually happen, whether it’s a print melting or an actor forgetting his lines. In the future, when our grandchildren watch movies by implanting tiny microchips in their scalps or climbing into individual holo-pods, maybe the human warmth of hunkering before a flickering TV screen will be remembered with the same fondness as theatergoing is now.” 

Nathan Lee | “I mean no disrespect to the legacy of Antonioni, Bergman, Yang, or Sembene, but their day is done, their legacy is now that—a legacy. As a living critic, I side with the living. John Ford still kicks massive ass, but, well, he’s dead, and with him a particular type of moviemaking. And so what? That’s not some great national tragedy—it’s just part of how art evolves. Why is it that the discourse around movies gets so caught up in nostalgia in a way you don’t see in art, music, or architecture writing? (“This M.I.A. girl has some interesting ideas, I suppose, but she’s no Edith Piaf!”) We need a new generation of artists on the order of Sembene and Altman and Ford, may their blessed souls rest in peace and their movies find a place on your Netflix queue.” 

Wesley Morris | “The one film in 2007 I wanted to like more than I do is I’m Not There. It was a head movie to me. It played better there than it did on the screen. I think the film eddies around this notion of Dylan as a chameleon without unpacking it. Haynes is one of the smartest directors alive, and one of my favorites. But there’s something about him and music (he made Velvet Goldmine) that locks me out of his filmmaking—he can’t mix the academic and the personal without making a mess. I’m Not There is all conceit. The movie has experimental balls, but I couldn’t get the zipper down to really feel them the way other people seemed to be able to.” 

Scott Foundas | “Even I’m not crazy enough to think that Colossal Youth or Syndromes and a Century were ever going to be catnip for the ladies in lavender who comprise arthouse theaters’ prime constituency. But something is unquestionably awry when a movie with the rave reviews and positive festival buzz of Syndromes grosses all of $16,000 in its entire North American theatrical run . Meanwhile, another movie with some of the year’s best press—Tony Kaye’s Lake of Fire—topped out at a whopping $25,000. Admittedly, Kaye’s brand of abortion drama wasn’t quite as date-night-friendly as Juno or Knocked Up, but I expected Kaye’s film to at least spark some demonstrations outside the theaters showing it, like the Christian activists who picketed the one cinema in my hometown of Tampa ballsy enough to book The Last Temptation of Christ. Ah, those were the days!”