BLACK DAHLIA came out 40 years after MURDER A LA MOD and has the same shot in it -- black-and-white audition, half-dressed actress playing an actress, directly addressing the viewfinder, with De Palma's own voice giving offscreen direction. It's those wormholes that keep you watching this debut feature, specifically how even then De Palma works to curdle exploitation. As a thriller, it doesn't hold up under the weight of self-referentiality (a charge I wouldn't levy against his later thrillers), although it gets away with Finley's silent comedy to a much greater degree than I expected. Only of interest to De Palma fans, but: of interest.

Soderbergh's Coen comedy -- a riot of contrapuntal non sequiturs and quotidian venality. Damon's bluff bluster is nigh impenetrable, but the glory of it is in that "nigh." Front-loading the cast with hilarious folks in straight roles gives it significant lift, and Hamlisch's score is laid on thickly, but not an ounce too thickly. Really a delight.

"The only words you can make out of R-O-O-M-N are MOON and ROOM." Yeahhh, there's also MORON.

It's funny/subliminal that the hit movie of the year among Your Dad would star so many TV dads: Cranston, Garber, Chandler, Goodman. When the caper finally hits, it's unimpeachable movie pleasure, but the prior Iran stuff is only OK and the Affleck-in-U.S. act was awfully baggy, holding on each of Arkin's inside-baseball groaners for maximum self-satisfaction. And man, Affleck doesn't stumble across any denouement cliche he doesn't like -- the affirmation on the plane from the reluctant husband, the reunion with the estranged wife, sleeping with the kid .... Solid, but not a patch on GONE BABY GONE.