Cool.
― Pazz & Jop 1280 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 12 November 2013 18:07 (ten years ago) link
David Bordwell on the Founding Fathers of modern film criticism:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2014/01/26/the-rhapsodes-agee-farber-tyler-and-us/
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:30 (ten years ago) link
linked in celebration of quitting this nonjob
http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/film-criticism-state-of-the-art
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 25 February 2014 16:55 (ten years ago) link
Kent Jones is a good listen: http://www.thecinephiliacs.net/2014/02/episode-33-kent-jones-spawn-of-north.html
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Tuesday, 25 February 2014 17:44 (ten years ago) link
KJ (who I sat behind at a Hitchcock silent the other night) on how Bazin and Farber would not be at home in the field today, and also other things about Sarris and Robin Wood:
I think that Farber’s passionate involvement in the actual practice of criticism precluded any genuine investment in partisanship or polemics, and that’s doubly true of Bazin. Paradoxically, this means that the cinema’s two greatest critics are outliers in what we now call film culture, a by-product of the Politique des Auteurs, streamlined for American use into the Auteur Theory, and finally trodden down and flattened over the decades into plain old auteurism. Their names are constantly mentioned and their most famous pieces are frequently cited and invoked, but rarely in terms of their relevance to contemporary affairs, least of all the lucid objections they raised to the auteurist idea at its inception.
http://www.filmcomment.com/article/auteur-theory-auteurism
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 6 March 2014 18:17 (ten years ago) link
btw is there a compilation of the '50s Cahiers gang's writings in English, or of JLG's in particular?
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 6 March 2014 19:00 (ten years ago) link
http://www.amazon.com/Cahiers-Cin%C3%A9ma-Neo-Realism-Hollywood-Harvard/dp/0674090616
― Number None, Thursday, 6 March 2014 19:08 (ten years ago) link
thanks NN
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 6 March 2014 19:20 (ten years ago) link
quitting this nonjob
how come?
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 6 March 2014 19:37 (ten years ago) link
there's a line in The Great Beauty (which I sort of hated otherwise) to the effect of "I'm too old to do things I don't want to do."
also
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."- Samuel Johnson
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 6 March 2014 19:43 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, well Samuel Johnson was a well known junket whore.
― Eric H., Thursday, 6 March 2014 19:51 (ten years ago) link
Read on Alfred's blog that EW's Owen Gleiberman just got canned after having been with the magazine since its inception. I haven't read that mag in years, but my family had a subscription years ago and I always enjoyed his criticism. His minority-opinion reviews of The Last Boy Scout and Groundhog Day were particularly memorable. Would love if Rolling Stone could somehow lose the never non-hacky Peter Travers and pick up Gleiberman.
― Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Friday, 4 April 2014 00:32 (ten years ago) link
c'mon man Peter Travers electrifying as the bruised heart of the rolling stone empire.
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Friday, 4 April 2014 00:34 (ten years ago) link
MZS on the sacking: http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/for-the-love-of-it-notes-on-the-decline-of-entertainment-weekly-the-firing-of-owen-gleiberman-and-the-ongoing-end-of-an-era
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Friday, 4 April 2014 00:56 (ten years ago) link
Bordwell's last entry on those '40s critics:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2014/04/20/the-rhapsodes-afterlives/
Seitz's advice to young critics:
http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/advice-to-young-critics
(I was conscientious, as an old neophyte, on about 8/10, but never had any illusion I'd make a living at it, so I just ran out of time and motivation)
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 30 April 2014 21:07 (nine years ago) link
https://media.vocativ.com/photos/2014/04/Movie-Critics-Graphic-Full2.jpeg
http://www.vocativ.com/culture/media/screening-hacks-americas-movie-critics-rated/
― jaymc, Wednesday, 30 April 2014 22:18 (nine years ago) link
odious
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:45 (nine years ago) link
that doesn't seem to allow for the possibility that maybe "200 of the highest-grossing movies of the decade" were mostly shit
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 1 May 2014 07:49 (nine years ago) link
thou daren't deviate from the norm
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 09:55 (nine years ago) link
consensus = truth
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 1 May 2014 10:27 (nine years ago) link
Kael, Kauffmann, and Simon would have been off the chart for the duration of their careers; Sarris the same for his heyday, though he really softened the last decade or so. Farber would have been in another county (though he was only a regular reviewer for a short while).
― clemenza, Thursday, 1 May 2014 11:29 (nine years ago) link
i'm FPing any score-related posts in future
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 11:37 (nine years ago) link
Reunion in Vienna (1933, Franklin) 7/10*Inside Llewyn Davis (2013, Coen, Coen) 8/10Adam & Yves (1974, de Rome) 5/10*Manhattan Melodrama (1934, Van Dyke) 6/10Slap the Monster on Page One (1972, Bellocchio) 7/10Love Is Strange (2014, Sachs) 6/10Devil in the Flesh (1986, Bellocchio) 5/10The Eyes, the Mouth (1982, Bellocchio) 6/10Manakamana (2013, Spray, Velez) 7/10*An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012, Nance) 8/10The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976, Ross) 7/10The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970, Wilder) 6/10
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Etc., etc., etc.
I don't think ratings are a problem in and of themselves, least of all on a message board where there's no review attached.
― clemenza, Thursday, 1 May 2014 11:44 (nine years ago) link
well, we're not critics. Glossing over substantive stuff on critical chops in favor of another mass-market barometer is for shit.
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 12:11 (nine years ago) link
no one's making a scoresheet of our ratings, yr comparison is specious
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 12:21 (nine years ago) link
jaymc might be
― wins, Thursday, 1 May 2014 12:26 (nine years ago) link
and the NSA.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 1 May 2014 12:36 (nine years ago) link
I don't know, I just don't see ratings as a problem when accompanied by good writing. Christgau rated records for 40+ years. If you mean that ratings are usually accompanied by poor writing, that's probably true. But they don't cause the poor writing.
― clemenza, Thursday, 1 May 2014 12:50 (nine years ago) link
i'm talking about RATINGS IN ISOLATION, goddammit
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 1 May 2014 13:04 (nine years ago) link
Okay...My mahy talents notwithstanding, I'm not a mind-reader.
― clemenza, Thursday, 1 May 2014 13:09 (nine years ago) link
"many"...typing not one of them, not anymore.
― clemenza, Thursday, 1 May 2014 13:10 (nine years ago) link
new site
Critics Round Up is the first movie review aggregator to select reviews based on the quality of writing moreso than popularity. That doesn’t mean CRU will pick up on all of the worthy film writing online. Good writing has and will continue to fall through the cracks, which is inevitable since the internet is so big and constantly expanding. But unlike Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, CRU will not fail in bringing your attention to new writing by esteemed critics like Adrian Martin and Kent Jones or reputable film journals like Senses of Cinema and La Furia Umana, people and sites that absolutely shouldn’t be overlooked.
http://criticsroundup.com/about-critics-round-up/
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 May 2014 21:40 (nine years ago) link
http://criticsroundup.com/which-critics-are-included/
― Cronk's Not Cronk (Eric H.), Tuesday, 13 May 2014 21:55 (nine years ago) link
100% in favor--notice, though, they are converting to a score ("CRU Rating").
Find this combination confusing on the "Which Critics Are Included" page:
The New Yorker: Richard BrodyThe Nation: James Agee, Manny FarberThe New Republic: Manny FarberTime: James Agee, Manny Farber
― clemenza, Tuesday, 13 May 2014 21:59 (nine years ago) link
They've had a twitter feed for awhile now, and frequently sent out round-ups of rep screenings.
― Cronk's Not Cronk (Eric H.), Tuesday, 13 May 2014 22:03 (nine years ago) link
I hope Agee's on the wagon--shouldn't Twitter while drunk.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 13 May 2014 22:05 (nine years ago) link
farber wrote for all those publications! also he is dead, and hadn't been writing criticism since 1978. but i'd love to hear what he has to say about neighbors!
― espring (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 May 2014 22:06 (nine years ago) link
xpost beat me to it!
If they're having a historical section, again, great, all for it. It was as much Brody's name on its own that jumped out at me. The New Yorker had one or two other great critics they might want to add, ditto The New Republic.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 13 May 2014 22:12 (nine years ago) link
I wonder if they are including niche writers like Tony Rayns and Grady Hendrix; I'll read anything by them that I can get my hands on.
― espring (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 May 2014 22:14 (nine years ago) link
"niche" meaning = Asia
http://www.filmcomment.com/entry/bombast-ad-hominem-ad-nauseam
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:52 (nine years ago) link
yeah, was tempted to put that in the Armond thread
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:55 (nine years ago) link
that Cinemania '94 CD-ROM to which he alludes was invaluable to me.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:06 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I had the '96 version.
― You are exactly why people root for the apes (Eric H.), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:08 (nine years ago) link
'95er over here
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:30 (nine years ago) link
well, that was a completely useless article.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:43 (nine years ago) link
sounds like you've never been lambasted by a filmmaker in a comments section
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
i prefer slow-roasted to lam-basted
― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
are we supposed to congratulate these dudes for ad hominem attacks or at the very least feel compassion for them, idgi. pretty telling in kenny's blog was matt zoller seitz's story about how this ed champion guy retweeted MZS's personal remembrance of his wife on what would have been her 40th birthday and implied that they didn't love each other. kind of crazy how even armond white doesn't hold a candle to ed champion or np thompson in the ranks of the unhappy sociopathic misogynistic creeps of internet film writing.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 18:32 (nine years ago) link