When you take into account Reverse Shot’s reputation for consistently bursting the bubble on over-hyped art house darlings (I became an Andrew Tracy fan after he called Pan’s Labyrinth “dreck” last year), for taking challenging and/or unfashionable positions on filmmakers and stars (see Justin Stewart’s analysis of Colin Farrell’s performance in Miami Vice here), and for just generally being contrarian, the most surprising thing about their latest issue is how closely many of the pieces hew to the critical party line. No one needs Reverse Shot to tell them that the Farrelly Brothers have “suck[ed] all of the soul and much of the meaning out of The Heartbreak Kid,” or that Across the Universe is a “disastrous…pawning [of] the Sixties as nostalgia to a younger generation,” while “I’m Not There is great art.”

But where the new releases section falters a bit, the issue’s main thrust, a symposium on Gus Van Sant, restores faith. Justin Stewart, in particular, saves the day, with two pieces on films sprung from the grey matter of Mr. Ben Affleck.

Stewart’s review of Gone Baby Gone appeared on Reverse Shot a couple of weeks ago when the film first went into release, but its seems to take on new significance up against Stewart’s sort-of defense of Good Will Hunting, apparently crafted specifically for the Van Sant issue. In the Baby review, Stewart admitted to being an Affleck “apologist”; in the Hunting essay, he runs down the films many faults, only to succumb to its charms: “I hate it, but, goddamn it, I respect it.” Stewart’s transparent subjectivity on all things Affleck is fascinating. More, please.

Also of note in this issue: Nicolas Rapold on the “headphone subjectivity” at work in Morvern Callar and All About Lily Chou-Chou; and Nathan Kosub’s essay on Drugstore Cowboy, in which he declares the much-beloved Gerry “almost without worth, a film that devalues landscape, scriptwriting, acting, editing, and direction by never exercising a choice,” and concludes, “we need to talk about Gus Van Sant less, not more.”