Which film critics do you trust (if any?)

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there's definitely more music writers i like than film writers at this point, mostly thanks to ilm.

i wonder if there's an alternate reality movie-oriented ilx out there somewhere where all the music discussions suck

― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:35 (twenty years ago)

or, perhaps i should say, there are certain kinds of films in which he is less willing than i to find something

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:36 (twenty years ago)

the best critic i've read isn't a music or film critic, but probably jonathan gold, who is a restaurant critic for la weekly

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:37 (twenty years ago)

Ebert is always an entertaining writer, even when I disagree with him vehemently (seriously, dude, not ALL Anime is good, and do you really have to give at least 2 stars to any film with boobies?)

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:37 (twenty years ago)

Tom Carson's columns about TV in the Voice were better than maybe any film criticism going now.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:38 (twenty years ago)

Why did the Voice basically demolish its film section anyhow? That was like my final straw with even bothering with that paper.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:39 (twenty years ago)

"Tom Carson's columns about TV in the Voice were better than maybe any film criticism going now."

You could probably strike "film" from that sentence and still be OTM.

― Martin Van Buren (Martin Van Buren), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:41 (twenty years ago)

"Why did the Voice basically demolish its film section anyhow?"

New Times hates intelligent crit. And paying writers.

― Martin Van Buren (Martin Van Buren), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:43 (twenty years ago)

around the time they handed the music section over to suburban bloggers?

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

snap

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:46 (twenty years ago)

I don't know about trust/don't trust (is it really relevant? and if so, I don't trust Medved or Reed or any of those types), but as far as must-reads, yeah, Ebert because he's always entertaining (although his "Oh noes teh handguns!" review of American Gun was just off; pretty much everyone at Slate, because they cut through a lot of overrated bullshit; Rosenbaum once in a while; Manohla Dargis, and that's about it.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 20:57 (twenty years ago)

I haven't read the full Cheshire piece yet and obviously that quote alone needs some unpack, but if you do away with the (always fuzzy) art/entertainment distinction that Ally rightfully complains about, I don't think it's particularly controversial to say that film aesthetics (and I don't mean the "film" distinction to mean "better" or "more artistic" or whatever, but simply the film medium, preferably seen projected as such probably in a theater) differs from television aesthetics (which isn't nessesarily the same thing as video aesthetics)and that there has been (for a number of years) an encrochment of the television aesthetic in to film and maybe that's not such a great a thing.

That's pretty vague and maybe not very useful until it's qualified more specifically (which I'm not up to at the moment and might have a hard time articulating). It's also a pretty complicated issue and has a lot to do with the the equally complicated issues of watching films on DVD or video and speaking about them as film.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:15 (twenty years ago)

"The success of films like 'Crash' and 'Syriana' represent the creeping erosion of cinematic values by television values.

This is such an ancient claim.

― Zwan (miccio), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

I mean seriously...2006 is when television values started to creep into cinema. 2006.

― Zwan (miccio), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

the best critic i've read isn't a music or film critic, but probably jonathan gold, who is a restaurant critic for la weekly

Gear totally OTM there.

― The Equator Lounge (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:51 (twenty years ago)

Zwan, if you read through to Cheshire's 1999 piece, he dates it all the way back to Jaws in 1975, but even then I think he's late by a decade or more.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 22:11 (twenty years ago)

I think it all went wrong when Cinerama didn't take off.

― In The Court Of The Redd King Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 22:31 (twenty years ago)

Matthew Zoller Seitz: "TV has not produced an Antonioni or Wong Kar-Wai, but there are little Howard Hawkses running around all over the place."

That said, Hawks is a major blind spot for me. Of the handful I've seen, only Gentlemen Prefer Blondes does anything for me.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 03:14 (twenty years ago)

antonioni and wong kar-wai would need to hop to it a bit if they worked in TV and i don't know if their temperaments could handle that.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 13 April 2006 03:46 (twenty years ago)

I'm not really surprised that most of the critics I named as being favorites two years ago on this thread are mostly no longer favorites.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 04:12 (twenty years ago)

antonioni and wong kar-wai would need to hop to it a bit if they worked in TV and i don't know if their temperaments could handle that.

Either of them could crank out hour-long vignettes that don't really go anywhere but pack a punch all the same. This would neither confirm nor dispute the point of the thread.

― Gilbert O'Sullivan (kenan), Thursday, 13 April 2006 05:38 (twenty years ago)

I am the most objective movie reviewer on the internet.
google: objective movie reviews

― shieldforyoureyes, Thursday, 13 April 2006 05:39 (twenty years ago)

walter monheit, peoples

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, produced by Jim Henson (New Line) [four monocles]
Walter Monheit says: “Terrapinrific! A snapping good yarn! Dontello is the thinking man’s Stallone!"

― timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 13 April 2006 06:13 (twenty years ago)

And if we don't make some kind of distinction between "cinema" and "movies," people will almost always assume you're talking about the Queen Latifah-The Rock spectrum rather than the Nicole Holofcener-Tsai ming-Liang one. (see every ILE film thread ever)

-- Dr Morbius (wjwe...), April 12th, 2006.

it's YOU who's on the kool-aid, man. fuck a t m-l.

Matthew Zoller Seitz: "TV has not produced an Antonioni or Wong Kar-Wai, but there are little Howard Hawkses running around all over the place."

this is really quite amusing because WONG KAR WAI STARTED OUT IN TV, MAKING SOAPS, MKAY?

― enrique, hahahaha you idiot morbius, Thursday, 13 April 2006 07:59 (twenty years ago)

Is that why everyone's always talking about how much they wish WKW hadn't lost his creative edge when he crossed over to movies?

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 08:41 (twenty years ago)

haha, i just had the almost plausible vision of a bunch of late '80s hong kong sitcoms being screened over a week at anthology or the cinematheque as part of some 'exhaustive' wkw retro...

― enrique, pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 08:44 (twenty years ago)

These are the days of being wild.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 09:59 (twenty years ago)

"As the ashes of time fall through the hourglass..."

― In The Court Of The Redd King Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 13 April 2006 10:54 (twenty years ago)

ahem timmy:

Walter Monheit. (He would have had something good to say about Like Mike, geeta!)

-- rosemary (rosemarygilber...), September 4th, 2002. (rosemary)

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Thursday, 13 April 2006 10:59 (twenty years ago)

Manohla Dargis is really worth the free Times (non-'Select') signup all by herself.

Eric, you really found Enrique smart at some point?

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:24 (twenty years ago)

I just came here to tell you to go fuck yourself, you intolerable piece of shit.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:25 (twenty years ago)

haha

morbius, what's good about tsai m-l? it would be ok if you explained why you like these overhyped auteurs, but you never do, it's just assumed that because adrian martin or whoever reps for them they must be great. so, 20 words on why he's worth it, plz.

― enrique, smart guy, Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:32 (twenty years ago)

Eric, you really found Enrique smart at some point?

I don't ever remember saying that, nor rescinding it. Is he a film critic?

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:38 (twenty years ago)

it's one of my more amusing passtimes.

― enrique, academic, admin dude, film critic, Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:42 (twenty years ago)

That's neat. I fully admit that, beyond Morbius, jaymc, and amateurist, pretty much the rest of ILX is one big amalgam.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:46 (twenty years ago)

srsly?

passantino, trife, blount, buttez -- the place is chocka with characters. and i hardly know who jaymc is.

― enrique's pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:48 (twenty years ago)

I meant on film threads. Of course, everything on film threads is cloned.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:49 (twenty years ago)

I'm surprised no one's proffered the suggestion that Wong Kar-Wai should direct ER

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:50 (twenty years ago)

I greatly resent being an anagram. Acronyms have so much more class.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:51 (twenty years ago)

well, network tv has to make a *profit*, which means following a *schedule* and alas working to a *plot*.

xpost

― enrique's pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:52 (twenty years ago)

enrique, you enrage me more than any other smart person on ILX.
-- Eric H. (ephende...), January 5th, 2006.

Eric, if Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is yr best Hawks so far, maybe Monkey Business. I prefer the wry testosterone fests myself (tho Angie Dickinson is the yeast of Rio Bravo).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:02 (twenty years ago)

I rescreened Twentieth Century last week: hardly a testosterone fest, and just a dash of wry. Carole Lombard's balls were definitely bigger than John Barrymore. I always mention TC and Only Angels Have Wings to Hawks agnostics.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:05 (twenty years ago)

haha "enrique, smart guy" is a great user name!

Zwan, if you read through to Cheshire's 1999 piece, he dates it all the way back to Jaws in 1975, but even then I think he's late by a decade or more.

This is also OTM re: lateness, though I still am unconvinced even by Cheshire that quite a lot of the "tv values" didn't exist in movies all along (not just mostly forgotten or hope-to-forget stuff, either).

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:12 (twenty years ago)

Twentieth Century is great, yeah... but Eric already gave it a mere 2-1/2 stars on Slant.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:17 (twenty years ago)

I remember saying that, but obviously not enough to carry a grudge, whatever the context of that "enraged" bit.

Yeah, I didn't really like Twentieth Century or Monkey Business much. (Only Angels is yet to be viewed and I have high hopes.) I accept the Hawks situation as my loss, as of yet.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:21 (twenty years ago)

tv values can certainly be traced as far back as Paddy Chayefsky. who was attacking, you know, television.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:22 (twenty years ago)

tv values -- haha, am researching bbc tv's first director of drama (1936-9) currently. with a number of people he argued that tv should be more like film (ie taped, edited) than theatre (performed live). it took a few years before this was possible, but, well, it happened guys! get the net!

― enrique's pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:26 (twenty years ago)

What would be great is if movies became more like old school, live tv soaps and sitcoms! No outtakes! Completely confusing plots and flubbed dialog! Bad make up and lighting! And don't even bring up Lars von Trier in my face cos the face ain't listening to that noise. I'm talking like Dark Shadows level of ridiculous.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:30 (twenty years ago)

I would have loved Revenge of the Sith had Ian MacDiarmid played Palpatine as Barnabas.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:33 (twenty years ago)

it took a few years before this was possible, but, well, it happened guys! get the net!

Still too busy trying to snare Vlada Petric in Bright Leaves.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:35 (twenty years ago)

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