Wall-E (mild spoilers)

I adore Wall-E. It's always interesting to look at, but parts of it are actually breathtaking. It's simple, with minimal dialogue, but still detailed visually. 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of my favourite movies, and Wall-E is an explicit homage. More subtly, the ending is like City Lights (well, the emphasis on slapstick, chance, charm, etc. is all Chaplinesque), but of course since it's Disney the mere recognition isn't enough for narrative closure, there has to be the final union (coinciding with the commencement of a new civilization). So much of it is about how we are a product of our environment, but ultimately it's about how we can transcend that. We don't have any access to the interiority of the robots, really, since they don't talk much. We get a sense from their actions and genstures, of course, but what's really smart is that we learn about Wall-E through external stuff like Hello Dolly--he's a hopeless romantic. So, in the end, they manage to give the robots their own subjectivity and consciousness even though they're programmed (at one point the plot turns on a robot going against programming). Anyway, it's a great romp through film history and a well-constructed story. It almost makes up for me having to sit through Sex and the City, if anything can.

Also I'm finishing up DS9. Sooooo gooood! I wish I'd gone through Seasons 4-6 more slowly. I'm going to have DS9 withdrawal soon! Voyager isn't as good, neither is Battlestar Galactica. Alas, nothing can make up for the loss of DS9...