Thanks. I've got my last two big pieces— a long-form review of To The Wonder and my last New Cult Canon column— running tomorrow. I've tried to make them as good as I can.

Hi, Craig. Of course I remember you. (We worked at the laserdisc store together, right?) Anyway, that's the great thing about Ebert (and useful criticism in general): They get the argument started. And I trust we had our share.

Thanks, Claude. You will read me elsewhere. Just keep an eye out. I'm not quite set for retirement yet.

I feel like printing this out and mounting it on my wall. Thank you. That means a lot.

Really? That guy is a hack.

Thank you.

Thanks, ElDan. That's really high praise.

Mike will be pleased to know his devious plan worked. That's awesome. And thanks much for the kind words.

Thanks for your fond farewells, everyone. I plan to write a little more about my time here at the end of my New Cult Canon entry next Thursday, but it's been a pleasure to cultivate such a smart, funny, occasionally combative readership and I hope you'll keep an eye out for me down the road.

No. I'm going to miss that a great deal, and I hope I can figure out other ways to bring movies to theaters.

This is the end, alas. Next week's entry on The Rapture will be my last. (Fitting, since it's about End Times.) I won't be contributing to the publication any longer. Thanks for reading, Craig. You were always one of my favorite commenters.

I both suck and blow.

Because it accurately describes the style of the movie. More evocative than "docudrama" given Boal's background in journalism and his approach to writing the movie.

Appreciate the clarification. I must have misunderstood a source. I'll correct the error.

Take it easy. The whole "journo-thriller" description is just that: description. It's a style of filmmaking that Boal/Bigelow have used for their two movies together, and while I admire both films quite a bit, the term itself is value neutral.

Good point.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll be sure to make note of it in the next write-up. And yes, it's treated as a hostile backwater, heavy on the roughneck bars, light on the ski resorts.

I knew I was in for a thrashing on this one. And I suppose you're all going to be hailing Far And Away when it comes out on Blu-ray. Ron Howard is not the boss of me!

I'm definitely not making a plea for more graphics, exactly. I just think the formal aspects of documentaries should be considered just as much as they are for fiction films. How the medium is used matters, quite apart from the message.

I don't think I'm being a cinema fascist here. I'm allowing for cases like THE GATEKEEPERS or THE INVISIBLE WAR, where simple testimonials prove to be dynamic and powerful. But I *do* think we need to pay more attention to docs' aesthetic qualities and not accept crude argument or an indifference to form.