Tex,

It's not Dana's fault that the small indie movies aren't distributed throughout the country by the major studios who think they can't make any money. While the latest Adam Sandler comedy gets 3500 screens, the arthouse gems suffer.

Dana is just doing her job as a professional movie critic and valueing what moves her regardless of if anybody else saw it. Its really subjective and she does not have an obligation to the public, only to her own taste and reaction. In fact, I think a central job of the critic is to champion what otherwise would get ignored by the public. The critic provides opportunity to us to see and appreciate the film and and by advertising the movie and supporting it, he/she gives the opportunity to a little known film maker to make more movies and have a career. Besides Dana's not averse to the blockbuster if it is good--see Wall-E (and lots of other prominent critics have included the robot and the second biggest film of all time involving a guy in a bat suit on their lists, so they don't look at money made as a sign of inferiority).

I dunno, blame the movie studios who release dumbed down crap most of the year and expect us to see it, which we do because there is nothing else playing. If intelligent smaller films were to be given the same marketing and distribution as the crap, who knows maybe we the audience would make them hits and popular would equal good again.