The screener ban is a controversy that's gotten a lot of ink, considering that 99.9% of the population has no reason to care about it at all. Simon Barsinister lookalike Jack Valenti made a bad decision worse when he amended the original ban to allow only Academy members to receive the screeners (DVDs or videotapes of movies that in previous years have been sent to various awards groups, professional unions like SAG and the DGA, and film critics, all of whom are excluded under the terms of the ban). Now everyone's pissed and year-end awards are being cancelled left and right.

I'm not so sure that's the right answer, since the ostensible reason for the hubbub is that "little" movies, the ones that benefit most from winning awards and making Top 10 lists, would be the ones to suffer most from the screener ban. Now it seems as though 2003's crop of such movies will be punished for the sins of the MPAA, which kind of sucks for them.

Another loophole - movies released by distributors that aren't signatory to the MPAA are not subject to the ban. So while, say, Miramax or Fox Searchlight won't be able to supply screeners this year, their competitors at Lion's Gate have already sent out a handsome box of three DVDs -
Shattered Glass, The Cooler and Girl With a Pearl Earring. Thanks, Lion's Gate! (Let's be honest - one of the reasons critics are so pissed about the ban is that it's been a pretty sweet perk getting all these DVD boxed sets just before Christmas for the past few years.)

I'm guessing Shattered Glass will find a spot on my Top 10 list. I wouldn't have thought that the story of disgraced journalist Stephen Glass, who was finally caught in the act after fabricating all or part of more than two dozen stories for the New Republic, would make for a compelling movie, but it has. Rather than dumbing down a story that relies heavily on the minutiae of how an article is research, written, edited and fact-checked, writer-director Billy Ray delves deep into the one incident that ultimately brought Glass down, his fictional account of a hacker convention. It's utterly absorbing and I wanted it to keep going, spend more time in that world (it would make a great setting for one of those densely-layered HBO drama series). There are a couple of missteps - an awkward framing device and a climactic 'moment of triumph' that lands with a thud. Highly recommended nonetheless.

I can't really say the same for The Cooler, which I really wanted to like. It has a setting I can't resist - the ever-shrinking remains of the 'old' Vegas at the Fremont end of the strip - and some actors who fit the setting to a tee, William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin. But I just didn't buy a second of it. Macy is Bernie, the titular cooler - a guy who's such a sad sack, all he has to do is stand near someone to give them bad luck. You can imagine how such a talent would make him invaluable to a casino, and you can probably also guess that a job like this would tend to wear on the ol' self-esteem after awhile. Indeed, Bernie plans to leave the Shangri-La at the end of the week, after he's finally paid off his long-time debt to mobster/casino boss Shelly (Baldwin). Shelly doesn't want to lose his best cooler, so he pays cocktail waitress Natalie (Maria Bello) to get jiggy with Bernie and make him want to stay. But, surprise surprise, they really do fall in love, and Bernie's newfound happiness makes him useless as a cooler - all he does now is give people good luck. Meanwhile, Shelly the old school Vegas boss is in a power struggle with a Harvard-educated young suit (Ron Livingston) who wants to turn the Shangri-La into just another Epcot Center attraction on the strip.

It's a problem - the filmmakers obviously want us to take Bernie and Natalie seriously, as real people, but the whole set-up is pure comic fantasy. It's like a couple of gritty modern-day indie characters have been dropped into a neon '60s romp. Also, there are sex scenes that showcase a little too much of the talented Mr. Macy. Baldwin is pretty good, whenever he doesn't slip into his SNL De Niro impression.

Haven't seen Pearl Earring yet.