Roger Avary, the nihilistic, semi-talented heathen behind the wretched film version of Rules of Attraction, has blamed the poor box office performance of his lackluster film on the moral values of the Midwest. Oh give me a f***ing break. Every ego-strained auteur in Hollywood can blame the cornfields of Nebraska for bad B.O. performance if they so desire. But get real. A crappy film is a crappy film in any part of the country. Even though I had to ride horse-and-cart to see the film and lasso up a date from the bowling alley, and even though I've enjoyed multiple readings of the novel before it was bastardized and mutilated for someone from DAWSON'S CREEK, I had no moral qualms with the film. When you look at films that have performed well here...in Oklahoma City...you can't ease your frail ego with the thought that bad films suffer because Oklahomans have some firmly planted love of the Lord that keeps them from grasping the overall message of a film. Pulp Fiction made more money in OKC than it did in Dallas, Chicago or Boston. American Beauty played here long after its video/DVD release. To a Bible-quoting conservative, those films carry a certain moral dubiousness. However, strangely enough, enough Midwesterners square danced over to the theatres. Why, Roger? BECAUSE THEY WERE MOTION PICTURES OF A STRONG CALIBER. For one, I didn't see any second-rate television stars as the lead actors. Second, the shock value actually had something to do with the plot. Third, the messages of those two films weren't beaten to death like one of the sick horses here on the farm. If someone's going to blame the Midwest for his failure and compromise as an artist, he might want to actually know of the trends and likes as opposed to the stereotypes of the area that allegedly forsake his great opus.