What would the Oscars be these days without some culture-war fight?

* What would the Oscars be these days without some culture-war fight? Million Dollar Baby racked up four big ones (Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor). Propaganda for assisted suicide? True. A reliable formula well-executed? Also true--and until red-staters pay attention to the importance of talent, blue-staters will clean our clocks.

But movies themselves are changing in ways that could be to our benefit. Theatrical release is more and more a teaser for DVDs; hence, the segmentation that gives us dozens of TV channels will grow apace in Hollywood. The medium will split into mass vehicles, and films for niches. There will be good and bad movies of both sorts: The Lord of the Rings and slasher/fart dreck on one hand; Kinsey, Fahrenheit 9/11, and The Passion of the Christ on the other. The common culture, to the extent it existed, is gone. Time for the aesthetically ambitious to find their marks. Lights, camera, action.

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