Question Celebrity

At the tail end of her rambling Golden Globes acceptance speech for her role in "The Devil Wears Prada" (for which she's also up for an Oscar next Sunday), Meryl Streep burst forth with a sort of call to arms for people who like high-quality films and still can't find enough (or any) of them at the megaplex: "[Finally], I just want to say, the reason you could see 'The Devil Wears Prada' is because it was playing on every theater screen across America," Streep said. "And if you can't see 'Little Children' or 'Pan's Labyrinth' or 'The Queen' or, uh, all these great movies that I've just seen -- 'Volver,' 'Notes on a Scandal,' 'SherryBaby,' then you have to go down to your theater manager and ask him, 'Why?' . . . It's amazing how much you can get if you quietly, clearly and authoritatively demand it."

I would like to see Streep tap a polyester-vested, teenage AMC employee on the shoulder and ask to speak to the manager, just to see if anyone recognizes her. Yet her words certainly address an old cinéaste complaint, especially at awards time: Where were all these great movies when we were at the mall at Christmas, and had the time but could only find unlimited showings of the execrable "We Are Marshall" or "Unaccompanied Minors"? How on Earth are we supposed to find the acting world's next Meryl Streep if the smaller-budget movies she's in never play at theaters outside of major markets?

In this, the age of "urban lofts" and $12 martini bars being built even in the farthest burbs, it's getting easier to find multiplexes that donate a screen or so to cater to the art snob in all of us. And other solutions to the variety problem emerge all the time, such as digital television or Netflix. Still, on date night, the people want what the people like. What's long gone (or never existed) was a moment when a moviegoing society could agree on what that is.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing "Pan's Labyrinth" at a 24-screen theater the size of some airports. I wish Streep had come with me, because not five minutes into the film, which is in Spanish with English subtitles, a couple got up and left, with the man muttering loudly that "American theaters should show movies in English." (Now he seemed like the type who routinely asks to speak to managers.) I had visions of Streep chasing these philistines as they upgraded (or downgraded) to "Night at the Museum" or worse, trying to explain to them how vital it was that they get back in there and watch a movie they were certain not to like.

E-mail: celebrity@washpost.com.