All this time I’ve been thinking of N.Y. Times film reporter Brooks Barnes as a progressive-minded, go-getter, big-city journalist — raised in Montana, educated at Marquette, formerly with The Wall Street Journal — who subscribes to the usual liberal attitudes and coastal philosophies. And then yesterday, while tapping out a box-office story about the huge success of American Sniper, Barnes revealed himself to be some kind of secret hinterlander who regards elitist art films askance. I’ve read the following paragraph over and over, and it’s hilarious how Barnes suddenly stepped out of his dispassionate mode and said out of nowhere, “This is who I really am…fuck these elite, navel-gazing filmmakers who are out of touch with real Americans!” The key phrase, of course, is Barnes’ description of the admirers of Boyhood and Birdman as “coastal intelligentsia” who busy themselves “with chatter over little-seen art dramas”…hah!