Which film critics do you trust (if any?)

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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)

I wouldn't have brought up LvT, ally, but I would consider Paul Morrissey.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:37 (twenty years ago)

The problem with discussing this "tv values" vs. "movie values" thing NOW is that you've got movie directors raised on TV going back to TV and back again. "movie values" AND "tv values" have been crosspolinating for a while. If there's anything to talk about, it's the rise of "DVD values" in TV.

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:37 (twenty years ago)

and vice versa.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:39 (twenty years ago)

;_;

it was just a joke, jesus is sad when people really do imitate Dark Shadows.

xpost what the hell are "DVD values" now? I'm going to claim it's "Pop Up Video Values" that are ruining movies and stick with that, see how many people I can convince.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:39 (twenty years ago)

Anthony OTM. For every friend who crows that TV offers more developed characters than film, I remind them that they often have to buy the shows on DVD and watch the supplemental material to buttress their claims.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:40 (twenty years ago)

if that guy has problems with 'crash', let him state them without getting into an inevitably wrongheaded 'x = essence of medium' type argument. these *never* work. bbc duder i was talking about had to put up with ppl who thought soviet-style montage was 'the essence of cinema'. today it's neo-bazinian types who think the medium is all about kiarostami (well, not today, but recently) or the taiwanese guys.

it's plain as day that there is no essence of the apparatus 'cinema' -- it's motion picture technology put to this or that purpose, and even the 90 minute feature form changes, has changed radically, and always has.

― enrique's pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:41 (twenty years ago)

A lot of shows are kept on longer because they sell well on DVD, some even resurrected after cancellation. Some shows are being tailored to a different market now.

x-post re: "DVD values"

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:42 (twenty years ago)

4 real?

― enrique, west wing fan, Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:44 (twenty years ago)

For the original question: David Sterritt comes closer to my tastes and opinions than anyone else I know.
-- sleep (enemy.airshi...), April 12th, 2006.

this literaly landed in my inbox from another list:

"April 13, 2006
Re: Scatology
From: David Sterritt

Has anyone mentioned "La Grande bouffe," the 1973 Marco Ferreri film? Higher up the artistic scale is Godard's intricate "Numero Deux," which uses conspitation as a central metaphor and signals its multivalent concerns with same right from the title.

David Sterritt, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Language, Literature and Culture
Maryland Institute College of Art
Chairman, National Society of Film Critics
Programming Associate, Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y
Special Correspondent, The Christian Science Monitor
Professor Emeritus of Theater and Film, Long Island University"

― enrique's pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:47 (twenty years ago)

wait, people actually buy DVDs of shows? Currently on the air, weekly shows?? I thought that was made up.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:49 (twenty years ago)

major "TV value": every theme and plot point being presented explicitly (thru dialogue or action), pref numerous times, because people leave the theater (or talk) during a film nearly as often as they take a whiz or answer the phone during TV watching.
(And don't cite exceptions, cuz we're talking tendencies.)

And yeah, the proles are dumber than they've ever been.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:50 (twenty years ago)

And don't cite exceptions, cuz we're talking tendencies.

k. does that mean you'll cite actual examples?

― enrique's flabbergasted pseudonym, Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:51 (twenty years ago)

That value has existed in cinema since the day they first opened the doors on the first motion picture theatre.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:51 (twenty years ago)

wait, people actually buy DVDs of shows? Currently on the air, weekly shows?? I thought that was made up.

The Sopranos, Sex in the City, Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk...

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:53 (twenty years ago)

actually yeah, plz to expand on:

"every theme and plot point being presented explicitly (thru dialogue or action)"

cos without dialogue or action, you have something like an empty screen.

― enrique, interested, Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:53 (twenty years ago)

the proles are dumber than they've ever been.

Poor, rural, uneducated Depression-era audiences to thread.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:55 (twenty years ago)

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