As the films in the Sundance Film Festival's U.S. Dramatic Competition category — the centerpiece for potential discoveries — started to roll, it was easy to wonder if it was all worth it. Thank heavens for the documentaries, which again provided the brilliance so often missing from the fiction features.

While conservative political pundits pile on 'Avatar,' one can't help wondering whether the right has finally tired of attacking President Obama and his administration. But they're wrong: The public clearly prefers to see a movie where the revolutionaries throw out the SOBs in power than one where the SOBs in power brutally crush the rebels. It's also why so many of us despise the New York Yankees.

Year-end “best-of” lists give me the jitters. Yes, I know: poor Phil. It’s true, though. Ranking 12 months’ worth of DVD releases is an overwhelming task. Worse still is the mad rush to watch as many as possible as the year fades in an effort to catch an overlooked title. The stacks of unwatched screeners that skyscraper over my desk only compound the nerves.