All this bickering only makes me want to see it more!

This is going to sound really pretentious, but I've seen clips, and I found the dialogue bad, but it was clearly (to me) not satire of bad dialogue, but a parody of satire of bad dialogue. Call it post-post-modernist humour or meta-irony or whatever you want, but I thought it looked hilarious.

I mean, Teen Horniness Is Not A Crime? That's too awful to be just a parody of Spearsian pop. Or is it? I can't say until I've actually seen it, but I remain optimistic.

I'm not too worried about what the people at Cannes thought - I don't think this was ever intended for them anyway. I think you have to be from the generation that loses its virginity via facebook to get it. Mocking post-modernist detached irony is a really tough tightrope to walk, but if he pulls it off, he'll set the tone for a whole new breed of films.

It's fun to hear back from you. Sorry about "Buckaroo Banzai" but I guess I win the nerd award and you don't. No matter where you go, there you are. I had to say that -- nerd rules.

I can't imagine being sentient at 8:30 a.m. let alone primed to see the rough cut of an overloaded film. Film festivals are fun, aren't they? (There's so much to see in the theater hallways, who cares about the movies? Well, I do, but still...)

I'm glad you shy away from assuming too much about the filmmaker's intentions, especially if it means the kind of pretentious analysis that confuses badly synched sound with an artistic statement. I used to read Film Comment. I also used to think that Cahiers du Cinema was "Cashiers" and had to do with box-office results.

I'm sure David Kelly felt too much pressure to release a masterpiece after "Donnie Darko" and had the usual sophomore issues. I just wish directors would work through this process more quickly. (Or are they worried about never getting financing again?) Stephen Soderbergh recovered quite well after "Kafka," in part because he just kept plugging away. (I'm similarly disappointed with how long it's taken Paul Thomas Anderson to make another film, but his new one looks like he was stretching himself.)

I enjoy hearing you talk about Godard and Greenaway etc. It's a continuing challenge for me to fill in all the gaps in my film knowledge and I like reading reviewers who have made it a point to cover all those bases. (My favorite Jean-Luc Godard film so far is "Weekend," by the way.)

Your interview with Noah Baumbach was quite good. I liked your description of the movie as strong "like cheese." Then I read Stephanie Zacharek's review and it sounds like she was lactose intolerant. You and she make a solid duo. I'll read either of you before Manhola Dargis even though I used to read her constantly (she beat out my best friend for the NY Times gig -- after about the 4th time they'd asked him to submit more clips -- so we have an in-joke about hating her).

I Netflix'ed all the Bergman films that Baumbach mentined (although I've seen two of them many years ago).

Anyway.....where was I? Oh yeah: Have you read the plot synopsis for "The Box"? Excellent "Twilight Zone" material. I can't wait to find out what he'll do with it.

And I agree about the family scenes in "Donnie Darko," probably made a little smoother by casting two Gyllenhaals. I love how the parents are these rigid anti-Dukakis conservatives but at every turn they're the most compassionate people in the film. Mary McDonnell's acting is superb. I love that woman's face. Most of what she does throughout the film is react to strangeness, and she does it beautifully.