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From Ask MeFi, which movie critics do you trust?

My answer: I use the incomparable MetaCritic to figure out which films to see. Aggregated critical opinion really is a wondrous thing. (And MetaCritic, as one astute AMeFi commenter puts it, “is what Rotten Tomatoes wants to be when it grows up.”)

So critics have a different function for me. My favorite critics give me smart, unexpected analyses that make the moviegoing experience richer. Often I read their reviews only after I’ve seen a film, to see what they saw in it that I didn’t. For this purpose, my favorites are the NYT‘s Manohla Dargis, Salon‘s Stephanie Zacharek (especially for commercial movies), and James Berardinelli. And my second-tier critics are The New Yorker‘s Anthony Lane, Slate‘s David Edelstein, and Ebert.

Quick, while you can still pull up all of Flickr’s most interesting photos for a given day on one page, check out FlickrLeech.

I’m not even going to link to it, because 1) you’ve already seen it, and 2) you know where to find it,¹ but the Natalie Portman video really is a masterpiece. Even as a ripoff of an Easy E song, it’s pretty breathtaking. I can even live with the random Viking segment.

¹ If 1 or 2 is not true … my child, I give you the Internet. Try not to break it.

² Brokeback was robbed.

I imagine it will be BoingBoinged within the hour, but this video of real people reenacting the Simpsons intro is much too Waxtastic not to post.

Now that everyone else in Minnesota is hyping it, I guess I gotta give up the goods for the Snarkerati. Chasing Windmills is a cinematic daily black-and-white vlog exploring revealing and troubling moments in the life of a fictional couple. All episodes are written, shot and edited by the two main characters, who are a couple in real life. It is fantastic.

It’s also kind of awkward when I occasionally spot the couple in my travels around Minneapolis, given the nature of the material. I kind of want to go up to them and say, “Hey! I love your vlog!” But I feel even more voyeuristic than when I meet other folks I’ve known through their blogs.

Malcolm Gladwell has a blog. I am already edified. (MetaFilterrific.)

Columbine-area teen in custody after MySpace.com posting showing guns. Best headline ever. It condenses almost all the over-hyped media youth-bashing of the last five years into one succinct line. If only the copy editor had thrown in some stuff about video games and goths.

Seriously, though, this is getting ridiculous. I was on a local radio show this morning being interviewed about MySpace. (Some might call me a media whore. I prefer to think of it as being democratic in my approach to granting interviews.) I did my best to cut through the hype and talk about how slightly modified versions of this exact same narrative have been circulating through the press forever. Poisoned Halloween candy. Dungeons ‘n’ Dragon cults. Grand Theft Auto. I’m guessing the number of these stories has increased since the arrival of the Internet, but I’m not even sure. As far back as I can tell, the overriding media narrative about youth has been, “Your children are in grave danger. Panic.”

Yes, your children are in grave and perpetual danger. Welcome to existence. Over time, we’ve exchanged sabre-toothed tigers for more sophisticated predators. And most of those are far more dangerous, far more sophisticated, and far less well-known than your standard neighborhood MySpace pedophile/stalker. Now you may panic.

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Did I say Gondry + Kanye = Yay? Try Gondry + Chappelle + Kanye + Mos + Erykah + Jill + Legend …

Hey Current, I think CNN International kidnapped your Web designer. I’d sue. (Kottkettish.)

In case any of you haven’t seen this link yet, enjoy. It’s the top 65 music videos of 2005, and all the selections I’ve seen really are brilliant. A few are available for watching without downloading the torrent; def. avail yourself of that opportunity. And watch “Mushaboom.” (Waxtastic, and side note: If Feist comes to your city, make every effort to see her perform; she’s wonderful in concert. Her voice really is as deliciously birdlike as it sounds on tape. And she’s great at banter. And she plays some mean drums. And she’s Canadian.)

PS: Gondry + Kanye = Yay. (fimoculicious)