With fall’s quality-culture rush not far off, the curve is a great leveler—smiting the smug and praising the pilloried. Recently backlashed, Beck and the Hold Steady are now riding waves of raves. But Emmy and Oscar favorites Mad Men and Wall-E are primed for anti-suit and anti-cute backlashes. Blog leaks are also speeding up the curve, so that Sacha Baron Cohen’s gay-Euro Bruno is already overexposed a year before his big-screen premiere. Maybe we’ll come around, though, the way we have with Quentin Tarantino’s endlessly plugged, still-not-filmed war movie, Inglorious Bastards. We were sick of hearing about it three years ago. Now, thanks to leaked scripts, we can’t wait to see it made.

Related:

• Archive: “Movie Features”
• Articles by Logan Hill
• Table of Contents: Jul 21, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!