Iremember being infuriated by a teacher in film school who used to say that she only liked “independent and foreign films.” To which I always felt like responding, “Even the lousy ones?” It’s the same gut reaction I feel to this day when someone asks me if I ever watch a movie “just for enjoyment,” or when I receive an angry e-mail from a low-budget indie filmmaker about a negative review, as if to suggest that limited means are an excuse for incompetence. There have, after all, been great movies made for $3,700 and $37 million — terrible ones too. There are good foreign films and bad foreign films. And I know of nobody — film critics included — who goes to the movies hoping for anything less than an enjoyable experience, though there are an infinite number of ways to... More >>>