M o I: Rolling Along

"Hollywood has never been afraid to challenge our beliefs," Samuel L. Jackson has just announced. Actually, most of the time it has--or at least has been smart enough to do it strategically, making politically controversial films milestones on a road paved with harmless crap. Hollywood saves up that social ammo because it doesn't want to bully audiences out of the theaters. It wants to draw those people in by creating that rarefied feeling of controversy. But only once in a while, and only in a comforting context. I think there are a lot of people who would not go to controversial films if they couldn't count on the padding of non-controversial entertainment. Often there is nothing wrong with that, but let's not give the movies too terribly much credit.

At least I can rely on Jon Stewart to add a grain heap of salt to even this kind of crap throughout the evening.