The Oxford Film Festival took place over the weekend, and if you follow film blogs, chances are the only thing you know about the event is that Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells had so much trouble with the wireless internet in his hotel room that he threw a fit, refused to attend a panel for which the festival had flown him out to appear on, threatened to leave town, then decided to stay when the festival put him up in a new hotel. This incident has made Wells the target of a ton of criticism — on Twitter, in the comments on his own site, on other blogs. And with good reason –– as Eric D. Snider put it, “This is ungentlemanly behavior of the worst order, Wells. You should be ashamed to have wasted the festival’s time and resources so childishly.” Fair enough.

But I also wonder if maybe there was a point buried within Wells’ tantrum that we’d be remiss to ignore.

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