Slate's Dana Stevens has come out with an intriguing review of Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan, attacking the writer/director for setting up his main characters as moral paragons even though they dole out serious abuse to women. Stevens puzzles over Brewer's moral blind spots: how can he let misogynist violence slide, while wrestling with topics like redemption, guilt and self-worth? For those who haven't seen Black Snake Moan, it's the story of a young, white town slut who is raped and left for dead by the side of the road. An aging black loner finds her, takes her home, and promptly ropes her up with a big, clanking chain, which won't be removed until she's 'cured' of her wicked ways.

"What bullshit," is how Stevens starts the critique. "Can we just start with something very basic here? Chaining someone to your radiator is wrong. Depriving a near-naked and recently assaulted stranger of the most basic physical liberty for days on end is a sick, perverse and cruel thing to do." She also takes note of the movie's oddest motif -- the fact that Ricci's character is prone to falling-on-the-ground nymphomania fits, symptoms of which are "writhing in panties and scratching at one's thighs."

Stevens goes on to recount how much she hated Hustle & Flow, a film in which the aspiring-rapper hero throws a prostitute and her baby out on the street as punishment for back-talk. "I couldn't have given a shit whether he achieved rap fame or not," she says. Cinematical recently interviewed Brewer, and he seemed carefully prepared to dodge the film's controversial elements. When asked about the nymphomania-fit scenes, he would talk about panic attacks. When asked about the film's black-white tension, he claimed it wasn't a subject that interested him, before opening up a bit. Check out our two reviews of the film here and here.

There was a lot of complaining yesterday about the Oscar nominations, mostly from critics and other film writers who were disappointed with Dreamgirls not earning a Best Picture nod. And even those who weren't complaining about it were at least stunned to the point that the snub seemed to become the biggest news in the history of the Oscars (our own Scott Weinberg thankfully made no mention of it). For those who want a simple abridged version of the nomination coverage, GreenCine has it all.

Dana Stevens at Slate seems to be one of the only people who doesn't mind that Dreamgirls was left out of the main race, and instead asks the more important question: what happened to Volver? The film was a favorite for the foreign language category, and it certainly should have garnered Almodóvar another screenplay nomination. Others that Stevens felt deserved noms include Catherine O'Hara (I don't agree entirely, but I feel she's more deserving than Breslin) and Philip Glass' score for The Illusionist (Glass was instead nominated for his Notes on a Scandal work).

Eight days after Slate's film critic Dana Stevens declared Children of Men to be the best film of the millennium, she's now quietly backing off that dubious claim. Tucked into her top ten list, released today, is the following statement: "Ok, maybe I was feeling a burst of yuletide generosity last week when I labeled this 'the movie of the millenium', but it's been a long time since a filmmaker has brought together intellectual rigor, technical prowess and compassion the way Alfonso Cuaron does.'" A look at the latest readings from Metacritic also show that the initial burst of praise that accompanied the film's release may be receding. Children of Men is now only the 19th-best reviewed film of the year, one slot above Lassie. The sustained praise from all quarters is for Alfonso Curaon's direction will no doubt earn him an Oscar nod and could actually re-ignite the category that most had written off as "Marty's year," but will Children of Men be nominated for the Best Picture award?

I was unimpressed by the film when I first saw it the day after Christmas, but a lot of critics and non-critics I respect seem to heartily disagree, so I have made a half-hearted promise to a couple of people to see it again before rendering my final judgment. The theater I saw the film in was almost completely empty, which may have contributed to the low-energy I felt. I should also point out that it happens to be the choice of both Cinematical's James Rocchi and Kim Voynar for best film of 2006. ...