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News & ArtsTuesday, March 3, 2009
Media / Film It's Like a Hit List
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 5:26 PM
Things are getting so bad that it's actually possible to make lists like this: The Last 122 117 Film Critics Left In America. You couldn't even fill a megaplex theater with this many people.
6
Over a dozen are online/TV only so that makes it ~ 100 or so exclusively print critics left.
I suspect half that number won't make it out of the latest recession.
I suspect half that number won't make it out of the latest recession.
8
I honestly don't care if there's one, solitary film critic left, clinging to the newsprint for all it's worth. They are victims of their own snobbery, insincerity, and ignorance. You only have to take a look at Anthony Lane's review of Watchmen (in The New Yorker) where he blames the dialog (from the comic) on Snyder, and says the movie is terrible, decries the misogyny, then laments the loss of comic strips being funny. If you are that out of touch with what you are reviewing you should turn in your press badge and retire. (That has nothing to do with the perceived quality of Watchmen, it's just a great example of a bad critic.)
When it comes to reviews, there is no way to beat blogs. Reporting is all newspaper publishers have left, and they are in the process of trying to cut that down.
I can open up Rotten Tomatoes, get an aggregate review, and then read in to any of the reviews I want to, from a variety of sources and viewpoints. I can even read up on the background and bias of the person reviewing. Newsprint can not offer these things.
When it comes to reviews, there is no way to beat blogs. Reporting is all newspaper publishers have left, and they are in the process of trying to cut that down.
I can open up Rotten Tomatoes, get an aggregate review, and then read in to any of the reviews I want to, from a variety of sources and viewpoints. I can even read up on the background and bias of the person reviewing. Newsprint can not offer these things.
10
Go To Yahoo Movies. Read the critics review. Read the users reviews. For my money, I'll take the users reviews every time. The critics reviews are arcane, prissy, and just almost always wrong.
Go To Yahoo Movies. Read the critics review. Read the users reviews. For my money, I'll take the users reviews every time. The critics reviews are arcane, prissy, and just almost always wrong.
12
I would like to add my voice to the chorus saying GOOD RIDDANCE. Movie critics ruined my ability to enjoy mindless action flicks. I can't even watch a trailer now without completely dissecting all that's wrong with the movie.
14
Shrug, I could care less if there were zero left. In the era of the internet critics are mostly obsolete. I haven't read one in years and don't plan to.
Why should people get paid to offer their opinions that are honestly no better then the myriad of ones offered for free by various people on various website.
In other words Ebert can suck my dick.
Why should people get paid to offer their opinions that are honestly no better then the myriad of ones offered for free by various people on various website.
In other words Ebert can suck my dick.
15
@12
Critics respect the mindless action movie. Fast and the Furious, Blade and Blade 2, the first Matrix, all got plenty of decent reviews. The main problem is most mindless action movies suck, a lot. For every Commando there are thirty Kindergarten Cops, (and one tenth of a Terminator 2.)
The trick with movie reviews is you find a critic who tends to agree with you and you stick with them. The fewer critics there are, the harder that gets. The problem with depending on user submitted reviews is you have no history with the person, so you have no basis of comparison.
I too wonder what their criteria for reviewer is on the list however. Isn't movie reviews how Lindy West makes most of her living, why isn't she on the list? How many other smaller papers got left out of their sample?
Critics respect the mindless action movie. Fast and the Furious, Blade and Blade 2, the first Matrix, all got plenty of decent reviews. The main problem is most mindless action movies suck, a lot. For every Commando there are thirty Kindergarten Cops, (and one tenth of a Terminator 2.)
The trick with movie reviews is you find a critic who tends to agree with you and you stick with them. The fewer critics there are, the harder that gets. The problem with depending on user submitted reviews is you have no history with the person, so you have no basis of comparison.
I too wonder what their criteria for reviewer is on the list however. Isn't movie reviews how Lindy West makes most of her living, why isn't she on the list? How many other smaller papers got left out of their sample?
16
Ebert has turned me onto a lot of great films that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. He used to sponsor an annual "Overlooked Film Festival" of films that he thought should have done well, but somehow got missed by the public. He also has some sort of tie-in with Netflix.
That's the purpose of a critic. It's not to tell you about the art that everybody knows about. It's not to give you a list of the greatest ever or best. The great critic, whether music, book or film, will turn you onto something that you will enjoy that you wouldn't otherwise have noticed.
In that sense, Netflix "you might also enjoy" and Amazon "Other people who liked this..." are the critics of the future. They can identify quirky tastes as statistic trends based on mass data.
Ebert was great because he could do roughly the same thing in his head. Same as a great DJ. But there are other tools coming of age.
That's the purpose of a critic. It's not to tell you about the art that everybody knows about. It's not to give you a list of the greatest ever or best. The great critic, whether music, book or film, will turn you onto something that you will enjoy that you wouldn't otherwise have noticed.
In that sense, Netflix "you might also enjoy" and Amazon "Other people who liked this..." are the critics of the future. They can identify quirky tastes as statistic trends based on mass data.
Ebert was great because he could do roughly the same thing in his head. Same as a great DJ. But there are other tools coming of age.
17
This is wonderful. It's like I'm watching the meteor that's going to wipe out the dinosaurs decending, slowly, onto the earth; the fate of the dinosaurs is sealed, and what will replace them can only be better.
18
@1
Only critics on dead trees count, apparently, with the exception of a few web presences so big a deaf, dumb, and blind retard couldn't ignore them.
For fuck's sake. The only institution more backwards than the RNC is the Old Media.
Only critics on dead trees count, apparently, with the exception of a few web presences so big a deaf, dumb, and blind retard couldn't ignore them.
For fuck's sake. The only institution more backwards than the RNC is the Old Media.
20
@16 -- No need to put Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival in the past tense, he's still programming it personally. This year's the eleventh.
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@14: Mike Royko shared some anecdotes about hanging out with Ebert that make Ebert seem like a really great guy.
A lifetime spent reviewing bad movies must be a hell of a thing. Glad it wasn't me.
A lifetime spent reviewing bad movies must be a hell of a thing. Glad it wasn't me.
23
blah blah blah blah gobbledy gobbledy look at meeee chest puffed out prancing around blah blah buddduh buddy godoink look at meeeeeeee c'mon look at meeeee.
24
If you people really don't care for film critics, then fuck all the critics at the Stranger. Fuck you Paul. Fuck you Lindsey. Fuck you Charles. Fuck you David Schmader. Fuck you Brendan. And fuck you emeritus film critic Sean Nelson. For you have bred this fucked up readership that doesn't seem to give a shit about what you, the critics of this fine paper, are up to. Are you pleased with where the web only culture will take you? Rendering even you completely, utterly worthless. Way to go. Way to fuck it all up!
25
I love film criticism, but it's hard to get weepy about 100+ people reviewing films full-time. How many full-time film critics were there five years ago? How many film critics are full-time vs. part time?
26
@ 24
Hey, I think I deserve a lesser "fuck you," maybe just a "go to hell" for my short tenure. I might be an intern, but can I get some recognition for being a sucky obsolete asshole too?
Hey, I think I deserve a lesser "fuck you," maybe just a "go to hell" for my short tenure. I might be an intern, but can I get some recognition for being a sucky obsolete asshole too?
27
I love Anthony Lane & David Denby in the New Yorker. I've never been tricked by either of them into seeing a movie I didn't like, and when they think a movie is bad, they are hilarious. If/when the New Yorker goes under, I will probably just give up on movies altogether.
28
The purpose of a film critic is not to tell you mouthbreathers which movie to go see. It is to place the products of the film art in a cultural context. If you think Anthony Lane is a terrible critic, you're a bad consumer, one who has abandoned the culture of film. The fact that you are debating the critical response to exactly the kind of garbage that has driven quality and intelligence out of the American film industry, and is thus making the intelligent commentator of same redundant.
If you are watching movies like The Watchmen, you are beyond the reach of film critics. And a film culture that produces The Watchmen is exactly the cause of the even worse garbage that passes for modern "smart" pictures like the kind that get Academy Award nominations.
This is the problem with American culture: we do, in fact, NEED film critics, but we have no films to criticize. It's all about the spectacle, flashy CGI and car explosions substituting for decent scripts and acting to the point where no one can recognize them anymore. You DON'T need critics to decide whether to watch the vapid pre-frontal stimuli that Hollywood offers.
If you are watching movies like The Watchmen, you are beyond the reach of film critics. And a film culture that produces The Watchmen is exactly the cause of the even worse garbage that passes for modern "smart" pictures like the kind that get Academy Award nominations.
This is the problem with American culture: we do, in fact, NEED film critics, but we have no films to criticize. It's all about the spectacle, flashy CGI and car explosions substituting for decent scripts and acting to the point where no one can recognize them anymore. You DON'T need critics to decide whether to watch the vapid pre-frontal stimuli that Hollywood offers.
31
But Lindy West is just a low wattage moron with a blog...
And Fnarf, pretty sad (but unsurprising) that you can't find anything to do in Mexico (assuming you're actually there, and not just in your apartment wearing a sombrero from Azteca) better than posting on Slog. Thank God for you, to lecture us all about culture.
And Fnarf, pretty sad (but unsurprising) that you can't find anything to do in Mexico (assuming you're actually there, and not just in your apartment wearing a sombrero from Azteca) better than posting on Slog. Thank God for you, to lecture us all about culture.
32
@ 17: Guy, we may be over-all better than dinosaurs, but there are still far too many of us with bigger brains in our asses than in our heads:) Best wishes.
33
@28 Fnarf thanks for the laugh this morning. You have not even seen The Watchmen, and yet you have come down from Pretentious Mountain to preach to me about how I don't understand the genius of Anthony Lane. To support his arguments that it is garbage --again, you haven't seen it. It's an interesting place to start an argument at. To paraphrase, "I have not see this, but you are all stupid." Thanks.
"We" have plenty of films to criticize. I believe there was just a huge awards show with shiny, metallic avatars of criticism people can take home and place on their mantle. The perception that everything is crap is the elitist crap peddled by people who think narrowly. People who do not understand the context of what they are talking about. Everything instead is judged from his or her own completely subjective point of view, and then doled out to the unwashed masses from a completely personal and petty place that does not serve society or the film.
Spectacle and CGI have a place in cinema just as much as pedantic and completely pedestrian "realistic" fiction. It is fiction after all. Should we just throw out the science fiction and fantasy sections of the bookstore? No? Then why should you brazenly mock their audio/visual cousins?
What I cited from the esteemed Mr. Lane's review were criticisms that apply to the graphic novel of The Watchmen just as much as they apply to the film. Mr. Lane clearly has not read the novel. Have you, Fnarf? Or did you roll your eyes back in to your head and then wrinkle up your nose at the thought of the novel?
Understand what you're reviewing and explain it, don't preach why we should understand your views.
"We" have plenty of films to criticize. I believe there was just a huge awards show with shiny, metallic avatars of criticism people can take home and place on their mantle. The perception that everything is crap is the elitist crap peddled by people who think narrowly. People who do not understand the context of what they are talking about. Everything instead is judged from his or her own completely subjective point of view, and then doled out to the unwashed masses from a completely personal and petty place that does not serve society or the film.
Spectacle and CGI have a place in cinema just as much as pedantic and completely pedestrian "realistic" fiction. It is fiction after all. Should we just throw out the science fiction and fantasy sections of the bookstore? No? Then why should you brazenly mock their audio/visual cousins?
What I cited from the esteemed Mr. Lane's review were criticisms that apply to the graphic novel of The Watchmen just as much as they apply to the film. Mr. Lane clearly has not read the novel. Have you, Fnarf? Or did you roll your eyes back in to your head and then wrinkle up your nose at the thought of the novel?
Understand what you're reviewing and explain it, don't preach why we should understand your views.
34
Roger Ebert has one of the best blogs on the internet. Lots of entertaining reminiscences and anecdotes. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/…
And he actually replies to many of the comments.
And he actually replies to many of the comments.
35
Well, since they don't belong to you (unless you own the bookstore) you shouldn't THROW THEM OUT, but you shouldn't be buying books from them either. SF and fantasy are worse than the romance section or even the goddamn westerns.
Should we just throw out the science fiction and fantasy sections of the bookstore?
Well, since they don't belong to you (unless you own the bookstore) you shouldn't THROW THEM OUT, but you shouldn't be buying books from them either. SF and fantasy are worse than the romance section or even the goddamn westerns.
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