REEL NEWS:The Oscar for best documentary is in danger of replacing the foreign language award as the most ridiculed category in that compromised jamboree. Film analysts are still reeling at the exclusion of Asif Kapadia's Senna and Werner Herzog's Into the Abyssfrom the 2012 long list.

Tinkering is underway. The Academy has announced that, in a bid to limit obscure titles sneaking under the wire, all future entrants must have received a review from either the New York Timesor the Los Angeles Times. Some idiots have argued that this decision hands too much power to film critics.

This is, of course, a ludicrous accusation and should be dismissed out of hand.