“Martin Scorsese’s dark, twisty detective thriller Shutter Island is set in 1954, in the full flowering of what W.H. Auden had, just a few years earlier, called the Age of Anxiety. ‘I don’t know, maybe I’m stuck in that time,’ Mr. Scorsese said recently, sounding a little weary as he talked about a film that ‘started out as an entertainment, though I guess I don’t really know how to do that,” he said. “It always seems to become something else,’” writes the New York Times’ Terrence Rafferty. Full article here

The New York Times examines the Netflix rental patterns of twelve major U.S. cities. This should be interesting for those of you (like me) that enjoy needless statistics.

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David Brooks of the New York Times argues that Avatar use of the classic “white Messiah” formula is actually kind of offensive. “It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration,” he says. Good article, check it out.