Along the way the protagonists get pelted with all manner of media overload, whilst in the midst of creating some of it themselves. While Romero is sympathetic to his protagonists, he doesn't spare them criticism. (While the Blair Witch kids are hapless, clueless, unpleasant solipsists, and dumb to boot, Diary's convincingly presented youths represent a sharp, proficient group of would-be truth-deliverers. Romero believes the children are our future! With reservations, of course.) Aside from its pointed parallels to the war in Iraq, Diary also casts a gimlet eye on the idea of the "citizen journalist" while also scoring smart observations on the approaches of different communities to an encroaching threat. Finally, besides an examination of us-against-them and us-against-us politics and a trenchant commentary on the it's-okay-to-torture-under-the-"right"-circumstances mentality that's been foisted on the American public, Diary is one of the most revealing and fascinating critiques of image-making since Michael Powell's Peeping Tom. Its execution is far more consistently accomplished and convincing than that of De Palma's film. And it still manages to deliver eye-popping and gut-spilling galore. It's an ingenious, energetic, angry and extremely plugged-in piece — nice to see from a director who turned 67 this year.

— Glenn Kenny