1. What the title says. It seems like I've spent half of this SIFF at the Egyptian, and everything I've seen there has been exceptional. Is there something to this theory, or is this just an unusually strong SIFF? Either way, I'm happy.

2. The movies have taught us to fear mad science, when it's really bad science we should be afraid of. And Project Nim, the new documentary from Man on Wire director James Marsh, examines some of the worst science you've ever seen. In the 1970s, a professor named Herb Terrace enlisted a family to raise a chimp named Nim Chimpsky as though it were a human baby. When that didn't work out, he took the chimp to a New York state farmhouse and continued experimenting with sign language, even as Nim brutalized the assistants assigned to him. The best—and freakiest—part of the movie is Terrace's willing involvement in the film. In a series of defiant interviews, he stands by his shoddy work and unethical behavior even today. You suspect that he probably has to; his huge ego wouldn't allow him to believe he was in the wrong. Terrace even goes so far as to insist that Nim's sign language did not count as real language; he says it was just highly specialized begging. (What, exactly, does he think language is, then? How much of what we say every day, when you get right down to it, is highly specialized begging over resources?) Project Nim is a tough movie to watch, but that's just because it's willing to take a stand. Nim's story evokes a palpable sense of moral outrage in its viewers. It's a sharp, well-told story that will break your heart.

3. There's not one original thought in Detention. But I don't mean that as an insult; I just mean that it's a cleverly arrayed series of film tropes lashed together into something new. It's a movie that's less directed and more DJed. We've heard all these sounds before, but we've never heard them put together like this.

(More after the jump.)

I don't want to spoil anything, but Detention starts as a high-school slasher flick and then makes a visit to just about every film genre imaginable before building to a surprisingly satisfying ending. Even Dane Cook can't ruin the happy, bouncy vibe. This is the kind of movie that a lot of film critics will probably hail as the ending of some era ("The dialogue moved so fast I had no idea what was going on in this brainless, soulless commercial of a movie!") and others will hail as the beginning of a new era ("This is the launch of post-postmodern filmmaking, and if you're not on board you'll be left in the dust.") The truth is, it's just another teen comedy, put together in an interesting manner. It shares a delightful sense of self-awareness with Easy A, and its restless desire to poke at conventions reminds me of Rubber. If you like either of those movies, you'll probably like Detention. I want to watch it again to make sure I catch all the references, and then I'll probably forget about it for years. When someone reminds me about it, I'll think about how modern it seemed when it came out, and how dated it felt almost immediately after its release. And that's an okay way to feel about a movie.

4. Both Detention and Project Nim are done at SIFF, but I have no doubt they'll both be back through town this fall on a regular release schedule. If you haven't seen them yet, you should keep them in the back of your mind. It's always good to have one or two guaranteed-good movies to look forward to.