Just a heads-up that tonight is your last chance to catch Richard Kelly’s beguilingly strange The Box (see review) within Chicago city limits. Despite Kelly’s efforts to push it as a post–Southland Tales attempt at commercial filmmaking, the movie is basically closing after a lackluster two-week run. Next time move faster, cultists! I agree that it’s a flawed film—after two viewings, I still think it gives up its secrets much too easily—but there’s a lot of subtext to mine, and Kelly does retro-paranoia with a level of skill, craft and personality that surpasses anything comparable in theaters right now.

Frankly, I’d file it on my list of really interesting movies killed by their studios. Warner Bros. delayed most American screenings until Wednesday or Thursday the week of release (depending on the city), which created the impression of badness, which in turn created a certain amount of peer pressure among critics to pan it. Not that critics always follow a studio’s signals, but when confronted with a large WTF factor, a short deadline and a wink and a nod from the people putting the movie in theaters, fewer reviewers are willing risk looking ridiculous by praising it. There are, of course, perfectly legitimate reasons for disliking The Box, but I can’t help but wonder what kind of reception the film would have gotten if it had been marketed the way Paranormal Activity was.