The promises of suburban comfort often imply a sacrifice of dedicated intellectual pursuits. At least, that's the bitter-minded stance that today's generation of esthetes and esthetes-to-be must take, so long as the notion of a "career" as a critic remains in jeopardy. Unlike teaching, which thankfully retains a self-evident raison d'être in today's society, the purpose of criticism has been routinely called into question — and the job prospects are now more limited than ever.

The dilemma stretches across multiple creative disciplines, from theater to classical music and the culinary arts, but the concern for me and my immediate peers solely involves the stability of film criticism. In my own professional life, it has never been an easy racket, but nobody ever said it was going to be. Critics should know their obsession inside out, a requirement that turns the demands of a career into that of a lifestyle, one regarded as insular and even useless by those unaffiliated with it.

A mosaic of some of the industry’s most celebrated big-screen directors and documentarians were brought together for ESPN Films’ “30 for 30.” This series of hourlong films recalls some of sports’ seminal moments and figures from the past 30 years. Playing to their passions and artistic freedoms, the filmmakers were asked to create documentaries on topics of particular interest to them — subjects they felt had not been fully explored.

“30 for 30,” which serves as the centerpiece for the celebration of the sports network’s 30th anniversary, began airing in October and will continue throughout 2010.
 
The roster of “30 for 30” contributors reads like a veritable who’s who of Hollywood heavyweights — Barry Levinson, Ron Shelton, John Singleton, Frank Marshall, Morgan Freeman, Peter Berg, Ice Cube, Mike Tollin, Spike Jonze and Joel Surnow among them — and distinguished documentarians who include Albert Maysles, Bill Couturié, Alex Gibney, Barbara Kopple, Steve James, Dan Klores and Brett Morgen.

A new Alex Gibney documentary on the fall of former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer is among the highlights of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

Other films set to be screened include Jay Anania’s “William Vincent,” starring James Franco as “a quiet and peculiar criminal uninterested in the fruits of crime”; and “Open House,” written and directed by Andrew Paquin, about a man who watches over his sexually predatory partner and her violent urges. Featured here in cameo performances are Paquin’s sister, Anna, and Stephen Moyer, co-stars of the HBO vampire series “True Blood.”

In all, 85 feature-length and 47 short films will be on display at the ninth annual event in lower Manhattan.

Of the 96 featured directors at this year’s festival, 20 have had films screened previously at Tribeca. Thirty-eight filmmakers will have their feature directorial debuts in the 2010 edition of the 11-day event.

Josh Radnor’s “happythankyoumoreplease" has been selected as the opening film for the 15th anniversary of the Gen Art Festival beginning April 7. The showcase kicks off at the historic Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City (141 W. 54th St.) and continues throughout the week at the 480-seat, state-of-the-art Visual Arts Theater at 333 West 23rd St.

The Gen Art fest showcases the New York premieres of seven features and seven shorts from emerging filmmakers, followed by seven afterparties at various New York nightspots.

“happythankyoumoreplease,” the story of 20-something relationships and shot in New York City, stars Radnor, Malin Akerman, Kate Mara, Tony Hale, Pablo Schreiber and Zoe Kazan.

Closing the festival is “Mercy”, directed by celebrity photographer Patrick Hoelck and written and produced by Scott Caan, who also stars along with Wendy Glenn, Troy Garity, and Erika Christensen, with Dylan McDermott and James Caan. The drama revolves around a cocky L.A. novelist who doesn’t believe in love until he meets a female literary critic named Mercy.
 

"The Hurt Locker," examining the rigors of being in an elite U.S. Army bomb squad in Iraq, was the big winner at Sunday's 82nd Academy Awards. Its take home: six statuettes, including nods for Best Picture and Direction.

Adding to the drama at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre was "The Hurt Locker's" Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman ever to win an Oscar for directing a film. In announcing the win, presenter Barbra Streisand summed up the moment by exclaiming, "The time has come."

"The Hurt Locker's" winning ways began early in the ceremony when former journalist Mark Boal got the Oscar for Writing (Original Screenplay). The film was also recognized in the Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories.

Hollywood stalwart Jeff Bridges received the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as hard-living country singer Bad Blake in "Crazy Heart." It was Bridges' first win after five nominations, the first coming in 1971 for "The Last Picture Show."

Lee Daniels' "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" scored five wins at the annual Film Independent Spirit Awards in downtown Los Angeles.

Daniels took Best Director honors, and the film was chosen Best Feature. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe claimed the title of Best Female Lead, while her co-star Mo'Nique continued her march toward likely Oscar gold by taking the award for Best Supporting Female.

Geoffrey Fletcher was also cited for his adaptation of the Sapphire novel with the nod for Best First Screenplay.

Another Oscar favorite, Jeff Bridges, was named Best Male Lead for his performance in "Crazy Heart," while Woody Harrelson took home the accolade of Best Supporting Male for his work in "The Messenger."

Other films that received long-deserved recognition included "A Serious Man," winner in the Best Cinematography category as well as the recipient of the Robert Altman Award; "(500) Days of Summer," whose writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber won for Best Screenplay; and the documentary "Anvil! The Story of Anvil."

The idea that big-budget movies often sacrifice story in favor of special effects has become a standard Hollywood cliché. It is, perhaps, the greatest of them all – but it's also, paradoxically, one of the more common rationales for the reason we go to the movies at all. A major selling point for "Avatar," from the positive word of mouth to the awards campaign, was that its multimillion dollar spectacle delivered the kind of dazzling eye candy that made the form so appealing in the first place.

Indeed, the value of the moving image has been married to its ability to amaze ever since the technology was first threaded through a projector. One of the oldest rumors of the business involves the Lumière brothers' minute-long screening of a train arriving in France in 1896. Supposedly, panicked audiences fled the theater, fearing the train would run them down. The power of three-dimensional effects was evident more than half a century before they existed.

In light of this admittedly primitive example, it seems worthwhile to ponder the obvious: If a movie can offer thrilling experiences in its most rudimentary format, there shouldn't be a constant incentive to reinvent it for the sake of entertainment. Georges Méliès, another early filmmaker, discovered special effects by accident: While filming cars on a street in the 1890s, he had to turn the camera off briefly to insert a new role of film; when he looked at the footage, he noticed that a hearse suddenly disappeared in mid-frame. A spooky effect, readily exploitable.

Another view of some of the box office's biggest moneymakers — the props and collectibles associated with Academy Award-winning films and actors.

Mavericks, iconoclasts and the just plain stubborn — the men and women behind independently made films are the wild bunch of the movie business. They are willing to risk everything for a passion project that no sane person would undertake. The Film Independent Spirit Awards were initiated to call attention to these unsung and often underpaid (or even unpaid) heroes of narrative and documentary filmmaking.

Since 1985, the Spirit Awards have illuminated the debuts of many of today’s most original filmmakers, artists who have gone on to influence cinematic language and popular culture. The Coen brothers (“Blood Simple”) Quentin Tarantino (“Reservoir Dogs”) and Jason Reitman (“Thank You for Smoking”) are among the most notable.

Actors whose careers were sent into high gear by a Spirits win or nomination include Julia Roberts (“Mystic Pizza”) and Derek Luke (“Antwone Fisher”), who memorably revealed to the audience that he had been a waiter at a previous Spirits ceremony.

If hosting the Academy Awards isn’t the most perilous task imaginable for a Hollywood heavyweight, it’s difficult to fathom what might be. You’re playing the biggest room imaginable – several hundred million worldwide on TV, at a minimum, some 50 million of them in the U.S. alone – and working in front of a live audience whose members are either A) Wedged into an outfit that’s making them horribly uncomfortable; B) Nervous to the point of vomiting; C) So insecure that they’re desperately hoping for you to bomb; or D) All of the above.

Have fun trying to make these folks laugh. You might actually have better luck with the Taliban.

For anyone who thinks it’s all just a matter of relaxing and thinking on your feet, I have two words for you (well, actually four): “Oprah, Uma; Uma, Oprah.” Poor David Letterman is still trying to live it down 15 years later. What poor Dave had no idea of knowing is that, perhaps more than any other gig on the entertainment calendar, hosting the Oscars is a thankless job bursting with land mines and snipers.