Brevity: A lot to talk about, obviously. Haiti, the Oscars, and Iraq's constitution are all getting big play right now, but I'm pressed for time this week. Briefly:

Taking the first and last together: So, Haiti loses another corrupt ruler. I'm more hopeful about the future of Iraq, and partly because the UN has been so effectively sidelined there.

Mystic River was a forceful movie, but upon reflection I find it seeming more and more like emotional pornography. Lost in Translation was a better film. I didn't see Return of the King, but it strike me that it is Oscar-worthy only in the post-Lucas world of bloated, slightly ridiculous trilogies.

Speaking of which, I watched a bit of Phantom Menace last night while I folded laundry. The movie suffers comparison's to the first one (i.e., Episode IV), but only because these are children's movies. And we were kids when the first one was released. As for quality, though, the dialogue is equally inane; the plot is at once nebulous and baroque, and requires olympic suspension of disbelief; and the ponderous pacing makes John Ford's epic drag seem like speed-cut, Jackie Chan fare.