IT IS AS IF the media elite is daring moviegoers to dislike Sofia Coppola and the Best Picture-nominated film she wrote and directed, “Lost in Translation.” Teasing a feature article in which directors of last year’s Oscar-likely movies talk with each other, Newsweek–the coolest of the weeklies–had a picture of the young Coppola on its table of contents. The caption read: “Sofia Coppola talks with her peers.”

Her “peers” would be, oh, young, inexperienced directors like Clint Eastwood and Peter Jackson.