Dana Stevens, frustrated filmmaker

Dana Stevens is Slate's new film critic – this is a good thing, since Slate's last film critic, David Edelstein, was dreadful. But can you see a pattern emerging from her last three reviews?

You, Me and Dupree: "A fantasy sequence, in which Carl imagines Dupree sailing on his father-in-law's yacht while his wife performs a striptease, points toward the movie this might have been..."

Lady in the Water: "The closed universe of the Cove complex (the camera never ventures outside the building's walls) could have been a great setting for a Rear Window-like investigation of neighborliness gone awry. Instead..."

My Super Ex-Girlfriend: "A less willfully misogynist movie might have made Thurman's double identity the starting place for an exploration of female power, super- or otherwise. What would you do if your girlfriend not only made more money than you, but knew how to stop an incoming missile with her bare hands? Instead..."

Posted by Felix at 17:44 EST