[Caleb1411]

The answer is for stockholders to fire these studio heads, and to ensure that none of them is ever allowed near a creative venue again.

There'll be such poignant weeping and gnashing of teeth at Cannes. As the late Steve Allen was wont to say of today's "entertainment," it's "vulgarians entertaining barbarians."

[IronJack]

Popularity of a movie is less a measure of its artistic merit than a measure of its commercial appeal. Not that the two are mutually exclusive; some artistic movies do well at the box office, and some successful movies are artistically vapid.

My question would be this: what is it about Brokedick Mountain that makes it an ARTISTIC gem? Is it the cinematography? Is it the skillful direction? The brilliant mise en scene? The innovative camera work?

Commercially, it's tepid at best. So what is the industry so "abuzz" about? The answer is obvious: if we peasants out in flyover country hate it, it must be good, because we are the repository of bourgeois tastes. We should shut up and see the movies our betters tell us to see.