An Industry Motivated, More Than Ever, By Fear: New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell reflects on the state of the genre. “…In the aftermath of Sept. 11, it is harder to avoid the fact that American mainstream movies have become incredibly exclusionary: a series of spectacles in which middle-aged white guys — or those who share their sensibility — blow stuff up for the entertainment of the 12- to 19-year- olds who are thought to keep the movie business alive. By playing almost solely to that crowd, the studios have rendered modern movies irrelevant to more discerning filmgoers — the folks who’d rather stay home and wait out the ever-diminishing window between theatrical and home-video release. If you’re a woman over 25 and you want to see a protagonist with concerns similar to your own, you stay in and watch series television — although, interestingly enough, the movies have been catching up.”