Things were different with police protocol back in 1991. At least in Abel Ferrara's New York City.

Today a cop gets into a confrontation involving race and the problem gets resolved over a beer with the President at the White House. Back then, or as seen in Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant (1992)," which came out in a new DVD edition earlier this week from Lionsgate, the sequence is somewhat reversed.

Among the films I've seen this year two are directed by women: Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" and Nora Ephron's "Julie & Julia," which opens August 7. Which makes me think - could this be the year that a woman finally wins the Best Director Oscar?

Even to get nominated would be significant.

Sorry for the long delay for part three. I was on vacation!

Since my mind is continually spinning new and specious ideas about movies, however, it did occur to me during this down time that maybe we're seeing the development of a new mini-genre: the Iraq movie that isn't about Iraq. Like "The Hurt Locker;" it's a war movie that just happens to be in Iraq.

PK: What are your origins, I mean did you just start as a funny kid? It seems like there's a tradition of British humor you draw on.

AI: I was always interested and there's a great radio comedy tradition in the U.K. and I loved radio comedy, I grew up listening to radio comedy. And when I was at college I would get involved in performing comedy.

Six years later after it started we can appreciate a film about the Iraq War, or least one as masterful as Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker." But how about the deceits and manipulations that made it all possible? That's where Armando Iannucci, veteran funny man for BBC, comes in with his rapid fire, hilarious and outrageous "In the Loop."

One of the many dire consequences of the trouble in Iran, not so important perhaps compared to the lives and freedom of millions, is the impact it might have on one of the world's richest film industries. Perhaps a sign of things to come is the uncertain fate of Maziar Bahari, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist.

The relationship between filmmakers and critics has always been more hate than love, at least from the point of view of the filmmakers. Some directors have tried to confront their animosity directly, as did Uwe Boll when he invited a tag team of on-line critics to go mano-a-mano with him in the ring over their negative reviews of his films.

I don't think any film has scored any higher than Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" this year at Metacritic (a 93) or Rotten Tomatoes (97% fresh), but there are dissenters.

Like Breitbart's Alexander Marlow, who describes his credentials for reviewing the film as:

"I am a young man, athletic, incredibly attractive, and spent three-and-a-half years fending off hippies in Berkeley.

One of the more popular canards against film critics (along with "did you see the same movie I did?" and "you don't like anything") is that they are a bunch of envious losers who attack creative people because they are incapable of creating anything themselves.

Nonsense. I personally wrote a wonderful parody of the TV series "The Man from UNCLE" a little while back which was a big hit with my 5th grade classmates.

It seems like a strange idea for a fast food restaurant to sponsor a documentary pointing out the evils of the American food industry, but I'm sure the people at Chipotle know what they're doing by offering free screenings of Robert Kenner's's "Food, Inc." at the Kendall Square Cinema on July 15 and the Coolidge Corner Theatre on July 16.

PK: Do you find it ironic this film came out (June 26 in NY and other locations) the same week the troops withdrew from Iraqi cities?

KB: I do find it ironic. When the studio set the release date back in January for now I think the withdrawal date was set for August.

Happy Fourth of July, all. On this holiday celebrated with fireworks perhaps it is appropriate to talk about those heroes who put their lives on the line to prevent things from exploding. Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" tells the story of the demolition experts in Iraq whose dangerous duty involves defusing the lethal improvised explosive devices (IEDs) set by insurgents and which have been responsible for a frightening death toll, both military and civilian.