The last brief, cross-cut, dialogue-free sequence in Paradise Now is the most chilling and morally disturbing of any in recent movies. Hany Abu-Asssad’s film builds toward this result in an increasingly tense process for almost ninety minutes, but these closing moments are startling and deeply disquieting, nevertheless.

Remember the old merchandizing line, “You’ve seen the movie, now read the book”? Well, in the matter of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, this advice may be particularly appropriate. Referring to J.K. Rowling’s young people’s novel, the fourth of six “Potter” books already published, may be necessary to clear up some of what you can encounter in the new movie made from it.

If it were possible to measure such things, I suspect that the death of Johnny Cash two years ago affected more people than the loss of any other public figure in recent memory. Not necessarily a deep and grievous loss for most, and certainly not a surprise. But certainly an awful lot of us heard the news and felt that someone integral to the character of a tumultuous era was gone, leaving us better for having been here. The intensity of that reaction may have varied, but few would dispute it.