Lena Dunham walks the red carpet at the premiere of HBO's "Girls".

Credit: AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca

I am increasingly disheartened and disturbed by what appears to be an unstoppable uptick in open misogyny. I’ve touched on this previously in a piece on Women and Oscar, but the subtle and not so subtle flames of gender bias are currently increasing rather than abating.

The female sex seems to be taking two steps back in Congress, in the workplace (where, for many, equal pay is still a longed-for dream rather than a well-established reality) and of course, in the media, where appearance is both target and weapon of choice. We are circling the same drain ad nauseum and ad infinitum in this arena where even women endowed with close to physical perfection are repeatedly subjected to our scathing societal eye.

Just this past week the release of "Titanic 3D" has reignited criticism of Kate Winslet's perfectly natural and gorgeous body in that film. Though many have been supportive, the Twitterverse, as ever, was at the ready with scathing remarks. Perhaps in an effort to preemptively defend against the onslaught she faced at 22 when she made the film, the actress castigated herself upon viewing the 3D version. "The second it came up I literally went, 'Make it stop, make it stop, turn it off. I'm blocking it off,'" the actress said to ABC News."Do I really sound like that? Did I really look like that?'"

Are the Oscar nods ready for prime time?

Credit: AP Photo/Nick Ut

After revealing which teams would play each other in the 2012 football season a few months back, the NFL has just announced the official schedule with dates via a prime time special on the NFL Network. (I plan to be in DC for the Falcons in October, thank you.)

It got me thinking. Why debut this kind of thing at 7pm ET and miss the day's news cycle entirely? The answer, of course, is ratings, monetizing the information and its dissemination. And suddenly it occurred to me: Should the Academy take a similar tack in revealing its annual list of Oscar nominees?

This isn't a new idea. The concept of transforming the nominations announcement into a prime time special has been whispered about for years. Recently, the LA Times' Patrick Goldstein offered up his thoughts on the idea back before this year's Oscarcast and David Poland voiced his approval. Goldstein even mentioned sports in his piece to further his point.

Chris Hemsworth in "The Cabin in the Woods."

Credit: Lionsgate

"I hope you die." "Were you bullied as a child?" "Go fuck yourself." "Learn how to write." "You're a haemorrhoid." "How do you still have a job?"

Any film critic even passingly acquainted with the internet must by now have got used to the idea of being reviewed themselves. Twitter, blog culture and the decidedly mixed blessing of commenting facilities have made it easier than ever for disgruntled readers to let critics know precisely how much they disagree with them, and in some more simple-minded cases, how inept this difference in opinion makes them. Some may say professional criticism is an increasingly irrelevant art, yet the critic-reader dialogue has never been so active.

Even in this climate, however, the comments above -- culled from reader responses to a single review last week, some of them corrected for spelling and grammar -- are exceptional in their biliousness. These are not the standard dull-witted complaints from movie fans struggling with the concept of objectivity; in many cases, they're from readers who haven't yet watched the film in question. These are the complaints of viewers, or potential ones, who somehow feel that their filmgoing experience has been violated. The film is Drew Goddard's acclaimed po-mo horror flick "The Cabin in the Woods," the critic Mark Olsen of The Village Voice. The crime: a spoiler.

Carloto Cotta and Ana Moreira in "Tabu."

Credit: Adopt Films

About a month ago, I posted  an early, subtitle-free trailer for Miguel Gomes's "Tabu," a woozy, wistful black-and-white Portuguese romance that I flipped for in Berlin, and which still stands as my favorite new film of 2012 so far.

Chances are some of you admired the glorious imagery and music of the two-minute taster without a clue as to what it was actually about; happily, a subtitled trailer has now been assembled, and Australian distributor Palace Films has kindly let us have the first crack at it. (They'll be backing the film's next international appearance, at the Sydney Film Festival in June.) Adopt Films, meanwhile, has the U.S. right, and has announced a limited release in late December; expect Toronto and perhaps New York fest dates in the fall.

Anyway, take a look after the jump and see if it makes any more sense to you now -- though I'd venture that at least half the film's storytelling lies in its more sensory aspects.

"A Night to Remember"

Credit: Rank Film Distributors

About the time a full crowd of TCM Classic Film Festival-goers began filling one of the smaller theaters at Mann's Chinese multiplex this evening, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic (9:20pm ET, April 14, 1912) came and went. The occasion: a screening of a newly restored version of Roy Ward Baker's "A Night to Remember," the 1958 British production dramatizing (though nevertheless capturing in minute detail) the harrowing, historic event.

It's been a bit of a slow slog for me with the fest this year and I've already missed a few of the things I wanted to catch because of various reasons, but I really wanted to be there for this. I had never actually seen the film and it seemed a good way to, I don't know, take stock of the anniversary. And I have to say, it's a fantastic film. I was kind of blown away by it and its impressive miniature effects, its swift but touching handling of the human drama, and I was also very intrigued that James Cameron's "Titanic" follows it so closely.

Bob Marley performing in front of a crowd of 40,000 in Paris.

Credit: AP Photo

On April 20 director Kevin Macdonald’s "Marley," a documentary about the legendary musician Bob Marley, will be the first U.S. release ever to be made available for streaming on Facebook on the same day as its theatrical release. Facebook’s users will be able to instantly watch the film streaming from the Bob Marley Facebook page.

In addition to the innovative distribution launch, a portion of the proceeds from the film’s Facebook sales will benefit the charity organization Save the Children. "We are proud to have the ‘Marley’ documentary support Save the Children,” said executive producer Ziggy Marley via press release. “Helping underprivileged children is something that our father would do every day, so it is very appropriate for ‘Marley’ the film to be partnering with a charity whose main focus is helping children. Bob would be very happy."

Alfredo Castro (far left) in Pablo Larrain's "Post Mortem."

Credit: Kino Lorber

Welcome back to Cinejabber, your weekly open space to kick around whatever film-related thoughts you have on your mind. Who knows, some of them may even concern films that have nothing to do with Joss Whedon.

What, if anything, are you planning on seeing this weekend? Beyond "The Cabin in the Woods" -- on which I seem to be in the minority, finding it reasonably clever but not particularly revelatory -- the options aren't all that tempting. I haven't seen the Farrellys' take on "The Three Stooges," but in spite of better-than-expected reviews, can't muster up much enthusiasm for the idea. Over on my side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, the crowds are packing into "Battleship," which, as my Variety review explained, is pretty much exactly what you think it is -- for better and worse.

"Django Uncained" opens nationwide on Christmas Day.

Credit: The Weinstein Company

I am not particularly excited about Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," but I haven't been particularly excited about one of his films in a while. Sorry if that's sacrilege for you but I've been happy enough being pleasantly surprised by this or that and just don't have it in me to get all goose-bumpy over the prospect of a new QT joint.

That said, my fingers are crossed for this one because, as you all know, I have an affinity for the genre in which Tarantino is working here and I very much want this to succeed so we can have more explorations of it. I'm really intrigued that Leonardo DiCaprio took on the project, and of course I'll be very interested to see what Christoph Waltz has for us after a few dubious post-"Inglorious Basterds" tries. Jamie Foxx, well, I'm not as taken by that and wish Will Smith had seen the light and taken the role, since it's what his career sorely needs at this juncture.

"The Cabin in the Woods"

Credit: Lionsgate

I have not seen Drew Goddard's "The Cabin in the Woods," but as I understand it from the ZOMG! online contingent, there are spoilers to be wary of, so I guess I won't be digging into this thread much until I finally see it, hopefully this weekend (making for a healthy dose of Joss Whedon this week, whose "The Avengers" I saw last night -- it was awesome). But as the film is hitting theaters nationwide today, it's time to get your thoughts and provide a space for whatever these ZOMG! spoilers might be. So when/if you get around to the flick, head on back here with your take.

Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman and Sean Connery in "The Avengers."

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

This may not come as the biggest shock to you, but I'm not what you might call a comic book geek. I don't say that with any sense of smugness or superiority -- Lord knows I belong to any number of other uncool subclasses of geekery -- but it's a universe I never subscribed to as a boy, and with which I can therefore never completely connect.

Even if I've grown to appreciate the occasional artistry in the books (and, of course, the many films they have borne), I must confess I've still never read one cover to cover. This, as you might expect, leaves me largely clueless when it comes to separating the worlds of Marvel and DC characters. Where news of certain comic properties intersecting leaves many fans (it's both reductive and discriminatory to say "fanboys") foaming at the mouth, I merely shrug my shoulders. The sense of adaptation is lost on me entirely.

Which goes some way toward explaining why, when news of Joss Whedon filming "The Avengers" hit the internet a couple of years back to a positive Mexican wave of movie-blog excitement, I was one of the few left scratching my head and thinking, "Steed and Peel? They're trying that again?"