LEARNING FROM INSOMNIA: Middlebrow movies starring John Cusack mostly suck (with one exception); better to rent B- or even B-minus thrillers.

The roundup: “28 Days Later“: Compelling, watchable, grim, but not nearly as smart as it thinks it is. Basic zombies. Not worth your time unless you, like me, are working on a project involving zombies. (This is different from the ghost-ship project. I am genretastic.) Oh–no, I’m wrong–this is also worth your time if you want beautiful, loving scenes of England as green and pleasant land (despite zombies). The scene with the horses, especially, is breathtaking; also the cutting from a modern abandoned grocery store to a bank of flowers as colorful as product packaging.

“Gossip“: Ohhhh so trashy! But so satisfying! And some very good–looking leads. I feel creepy about this movie due to the fact that the plot revolves around rape accusations, ordinarily a complete dealbreaker for me–be forewarned, it’s not like this movie treats the subject with care or class. But for whatever reason, I was able to enjoy this as pure glittering trash. I have no idea whether that says good things about the movie or bad things about me. Or both.

“High Fidelity“: Boring. I expected much better from this movie. Not sure what to say except, boring.

“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil“: Some fun (priceless scene where the Lady Chablis, playing herself, crashes a black cotillion), but mostly this movie somehow managed to drain an intensely fun, charming book of all its energy and seedy “Jezebel” glamour. Also, final scene goes over the top, and not in a good way.

“Mystic River“: Argh. I watched this on the recommendation of a friend who usually has excellent taste in movies. But this flick struck me as exploitative, overwritten, and overscored (why the swelling music?). The male leads do good work with bad material; the women do nothing with nothing. Much, much too conscious of its own status as a Modern Tragedy. Grr.