Matt Yglesias

Encounters at the End of the World

Ross Douthat expresses the inevitable post-Oscar grouchiness about the Academy’s predictably deplorable taste. He does say, though, “I was glad to see the mad Frenchman from Man on Wire pick up a statue, at least.” Man on Wire was good, but not nearly as good as it’s fellow nominee in the Best Documentary category Encounters at the end of the Earth. Conveniently, the film’s best scene, about insanity among penguins, is available on YouTube. Inconveniently, the real genius of this passage doesn’t come through out of context:

The seal sounds is cool, too.