They compete only to see who's hotter

I’m sitting here waiting for something I just put in the oven to bake. In the meantime, I’m watching a highly entertaining episode of Charlie Rose, who’s convened Mexico’s three biggest directors for the hour. (The show was taped a few weeks ago on the night of the Gotham Awards, where the New York Times's David Carr interviewed them.) Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro, and Alfonso Cuarón all have films out this year, and they’re good friends. They even strategize about which of their films they’ll let Mexico submit for the Oscars. But these are world directors now who've helped replace Mexico on the international map. And in this time of political nativism, it's worth-noting three of year's most acclaimed movies are from directors who hail from south of the border.

With Rose, they're discussing form, theme, and politics, but, curiously, not Guillermo Arriaga – González Iñárritu’s ex-longtime screenwriter (he wrote “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel” – is not. (Did they plot that beforehand?)

Del Toro is continually ribbing González Iñárritu about being so handsome (the scarf makes him look like a dandy grad student). We learn that del Toro advised González Iñárritu to cut chunks out of “Babel.” And Cuarón says he had concerns about the script for “Pan Labyrinth,” but says that del Toro’s completed movie was breathtaking. This conversation is also exciting because they’re not Ron Howard or Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg (although that’s a roundtable I’d watch). These are three audacious, very smart, vaguely known filmmakers whose movies strive to elevate and enhance the art form in different way, even González Iñárritu, whose movies have grown increasingly insufferable with empty self-importance disguised as art.

They have exciting chemistry and completely different personalities. In fact, they’re so good together that even Rose sits back and enjoys them. This is a treat. TV should do it a lot more.

(FYI, the Times makes non-subscribers pay to read Terrence Rafferty's beef with Arriaga and González Iñárritu's beef, but it's worth it.)