worth

There are two films in the current swell of enthusiasm I wanted to see: There Will Be Blood and Scaphandre et le papillon or Diving Bell & Butterfly.

What with having all the time in the world and all right now, I have achieved this modest ambition.

Can I improve on David Denby's (declined) canonization of TWBB? I do wonder at his disappointment with the final scene, which thrums convincingly in my mind and imagination. It's a scene that reveals and seals the coterminous fate of god and mammon, and satisfies even my own highly calibrated sentiment detector.

I'd heard that Schnabel's film was unexpectedly uplifting. I am relieved to report that it is no such thing. As he is portrayed, Beauby was enough of an ass to persist in this tendency with as little as a blink to convey his arrogance.

Quel cool.