Just when I'd been convinced that everyone's favorite NY Times Blogstaff/Film Critics were completely comatose (Exhibit A: "Today and tomorrow are days to shop and to catch movies you've missed" - A.O. Scott), Manohla gets indignant and drops some genuine, if obvious insight:

"...the American media and the American movie industry are together failing both film culture and the movie audience."

and:

"Now, though, it seems that the mainstream press — the well-named entertainment media — is far more interested in all things George Lucas than in the newest foreign-language release or even the more provocative, "smaller," "challenging" American movies. (As far as I know, one of the best films I saw at this year's Sundance, Police Beat, still doesn't have American distribution.) But I honestly believe that the audience is out there, as innumerable blogs, websites and regional film festivals prove."

The whole post is well worth a read. Even though criticizing mainstream/entertainment media in a blog read by people who most likely obsess over the problems of the entertainment/mainstream media on a daily basis and get the bulk of their news from alternative sources is little more than sounding off in an echo chamber, I like to see this kind of awareness in film writers. (Contrast with the war on hipster critics discussed below, or the entirety of the Slate movie club.) I still stand by my earlier statements on the NY Times blog, but at least the thing isn't a total wash.