I Shutter to think

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As the tempest in the teapot over whether audiences are too dumb to know what they like has been raging among critics I've tried to put things in perspective for myself by recognizing that regardless of who's been watching them the films so far this year have been well above average. It's not even September yet and we've already seen "The Beaches of Agnès," "Tyson,"  "Revanche," "Limits of Control," "Tulpan," "The Girlfriend Experience," "Up," "O'Horten," "Moon," "The Hurt Locker," "In the Loop," "Séraphine," "Julie & Julia," "District 9," "24 City," "Inglorious Basterds..."

But then you read a story like this and realize that these are are all probably a temporary fluke and that the powers that be don't give a shit about art or quality or even entertainment and slavishly, cravenly abide by the bottom line. Yes, the studio that pulled in millions with that masterpiece "Transformers 2" can't find enough spare change to release a movie by one of the greatest living filmmakers. Not just the critics and artists are irrelevant, but the audiences are too, and IQ's haven't got anything to do with it.