Two days after staking a claim that it is foolish to criticize filmmaking via peripheral criticisms, David Poland takes "Children of Men" and its proponents to task by saying it "isn't" the film many critics have found it to be.

Children of Men is not a movie about an intelligent species dealing with the pressing fear of its own extinction.

Children of Men is not a movie about the inhumanity of man to man, though that is a constant theme, as Cuaron evokes every historical memory of state oppression from the jewish holocaust to Abu Gharib.

Children of Men is not a movie about how people who desperately need to share in hope in order to survive are too caught up in their petty daily grind to see that it is about more than that, and in the process destroying the hope they are so desperate for.

Children of Men is not a satisfying action movie, moving the McGuffin from one place to another against all odds, to a satisfying conclusion.

"Children of Men" is actually all of these things in small or large ways, but specifically it is about the necessity of hope in the universe. It is about what Pandora captured in her box at the very last moment, and the idea of a world where that fleeting notion escaped with all the other ideals of the world. At its core, that is the horror "Children of Men" explores. And it does so brilliantly.

This was actually a pretty good column until this willful digression, which ironically recalled Monday's proclamation from Poland: "...I will continue to struggle with my tone and theme until I actually go to web-print." Well, keep up the good fight, then.

And who in the hell is still touting "Blood Diamond" as Oscar bait?

David Poland on "Children of Men" (The Hot Button)
In Contention's review of "Children of Men"