Which film critics do you trust (if any?)

Having seen the tweet in question, I think it's possible that (much like his Green Book comment) he meant something that's actually in line with what snowflakes would endorse ... reducing Bertolucci's entire career down to basically nothing other than the idea he facilitated rape.

Or not. I don't know.

it's been rly depressing to see ppl gloat about this on twitter

i assume if she were alive and writing pauline kael would get fired for one of her usual cracks about an actress's appearance or something

That'd be the down side. The upside is that John Simon would never have made it past two columns.

I was thinking the exact same thing in connection to this. Except I think it would unfold like this: some interviewer in 2018 would ask Kael to "clarify" her Last Tango review, she'd respond in a way that amounted to "Oh, please," and the next day she'd be out of a job.

There will probably be a number of pieces like this in the coming days:

http://www.salon.com/2018/11/28/david-edelstein-the-butter-scene-in-last-tango-and-the-darkness-of-the-internet/

"I suspect what befell Edelstein this week is only partly about one stupid Facebook post, and has more to do with the messy process of generational change and the inevitable Schadenfreude surrounding someone who holds two prestigious media jobs, either of which many other people would kill and eat their grandmothers to get."

I don't expect I'll get much agreement here, but--conceding that they bring some of it onto themselves--I think there's an element of that behind some of the carping about Christgau, Marcus, and Bill James on ILX.

no need to carp about Christgau because all of his writing is awful. that quote is OTM though

I'm sure these media companies are happy to take any excuse to axe folks with any seniority, especially who write about fiyulms, cause who fucking cares about those anymore

Maria Schneider never said she was *actually* raped in the butter scene; she said she stayed friends with Brando, and that all the sex was simulated.

Edelstein knows that. Martha Plimpton doesn't (too busy writing about what her "favorite abortion" was, it seems).

I think it's possible that (much like his Green Book comment) he meant something that's actually in line with what snowflakes would endorse...Or not. I don't know

I've seen the joke now, and agree with this. As humour, it's not much more than a lame reference to what I take it (I don't remember) is an old advertising slogan for butter. Not particularly offensive, definitely not funny. If you try to extract meaning from it, all I get is either a) a complete non-sequitur, prompted only by the fact that this slogan popped into Edelstein's head, or b) a dig at Bertolucci, the idea that he's getting a pass in death for this infamous scene. I don't know.

I'd have to check it (I might be misremembering), but I suspect that Kael's review of Straw Dogs is another one that'd get her fired today.

Maybe this one moment in film and social history isn't really about Pauline Kael.

Actually, I think it very much is in a way.

Well, good luck convincing your kindergartners of that.

In a both a broad sense--what could you write or say 40 years ago that you can't today?--and also very specifically (Edelstein was once viewed as a "Paulette," Last Tango is Kael's most infamous review). We bring her up all the time (not just me) where she's not really relevant, but this time she is.

I am going to talk about this today as a good example of why kids have to realize that anything they write online never goes away. (Grade 3/4, by the way.)

Maria Schneider never said she was *actually* raped in the butter scene; she said she stayed friends with Brando, and that all the sex was simulated.

That's not the whole issue, though. The sex was simulated, but she clearly felt coerced and humiliated in doing the scene. She says she "felt a little raped." I get why a joke that takes that cavalierly wouldn't go over well.

Kinda surprised that Martha Plimpton never said Schneider was raped, but that she was sexually assaulted, which she definitely was? It's ironic that it's the commenters angry at 'rape' being brought into this, who are in fact the ones who brought 'rape' into this.

Oh wait, Salon didn't have all of her tweet. Ok, everyone is bad, sigh.

but that she was sexually assaulted, which she definitely was?

not touching this

http://www.startribune.com/star-tribune-film-critic-resigns-after-ethics-breach/502410192/

If you're gonna plagiarize, don't choose Kael, for chrissake.

seems like a weird kind of plagiarism

Trying to figure out what Kael called "self-glorifying masochistic mush" in 1974.

Plagiarisers are idiots but they're the creation of a maniacal industry that gives its staff constant & un-meetable deadlines, little job security, shitty wages and zero though to work-life balance. By all means blame this idiot writer, but the structures of newspaper and digital journalism are built for plagiarism.

The Little Prince
UK (1974): Musical/Dance

The Saint-Exupéry book, the first of the modern mystic-quest books to become a pop hit, is a distillation of melancholy, and it comes close to being self-glorifying, masochistic mush. Possibly something might have been made of the material if Alan Jay Lerner, who wrote the movie script, along with the lyrics for Frederick Loewe's music, had a more delicate feeling for spiritual yearning. The director, Stanley Donen, is handicapped by the intractably graceless writing and by the Big Broadway sound of the Lerner-Loewe score. Bob Fosse's snake-in-the-grass dance number is the film's high spot, and Gene Wilder, as a red fox, triumphs over some of his material. As the child Prince, Steven Warner holds the screen affectingly; as the author-aviator, Richard Kiley is pleasant enough but colorless.

“Just like real soldiers who are numb to war” Reading these tweets one can imagine how it must have felt to be a tea boy in the offices of Cahiers du Cinéma circa 1954 overhearing a conversation between André Bazin and Éric Rohmer. pic.twitter.com/RcJgGE4fQc

— David Franklin (@davefranklin) December 16, 2019

David Edelstein is now behind a pay wall--only critic I checked regularly.

richard brody used the word "dinosaurically" in his latest column. i trust him to write things that are readable.

i often do not agree with him, but he's more interesting than more "measured" critics. in my view.

It's not really part of my criteria for judging a critic, but I do find myself in sync with Edelstein more often than not. But not always--he put Uncut Gems in his Top 10, as a recent example.

did u not like it? i'm interested in seeing it

See it. I'm a dissenting minority of one.

Vulture seems to waft back and forth with their paywall / article limit, but private browsing is all it takes to get around it.

Hey thanks--works!

Kenneth Turan stepping down as LA Times film critic after 30 yrs

no films to critique

it's hard out here for a critic

James Cameron won.

Not sure if this was posted elsewhere but Film Comment being mothballed after next issue.


https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/covid-19-update-from-film-at-lincoln-center/

Last issue: First Cow

I actually came on here to see if Peter Bradshaw was any good (there's a discounted collection on the book-clearance site I buy from)--the very first post tells me no.

I've been listening to the Unspooled podcast, and it's odd, I really enjoy it and their perspectives but I don't trust *either* of them. Not their opinions, not their tastes, not much of anything. But I do like their general positivity and respect for one another even when they clearly disagree, and perhaps because of that I've learned a few things and learned to reassess a few things despite how often my own preferences and opinions diverge.

very first post otm

I like Peter Bradshaw. I would take his reviews over most other newspaper critics. He often likes what I would like, and the other way round, and that is enough for me.

Has David Edelstein left New York? I was hoping to find a Mank review from him, but he hasn't reviewed anything since September (many reviews since by other writiers). His Wikipedia page doesn't mention him leaving.

(Writiers are like writers, but much more refined.)

This is a useful site that I periodically think has gone down because I can't remember how to locate it:

https://www.mistdriven.com/

The "Critics' Top Ten" section has an index of year-end lists from a whole bunch of critics: Sarris, Hoberman, Rosenbaum, Amy Taubin, even Godard (and Armond White!). Godard's seventh favourite film of 1964 was Love with a Proper Stranger; Hoberman's fifth favourite for 1986 (I still remember this) was Game 6 of the World Series.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/race/critics-choice-association-expels-jeffrey-wells-following-posts-about-atlanta-shootings-exclusive

“Trust” as in “trust to always be a total asshole,” that is.

Sorry wrong thread. For all Arm0nd’s outrages, he is still at the end of the day a critic.

good riddance

This 2004 interview with Owen Gleiberman, freshly reposted to rockcritics.com, is a great read: https://rockcritics.com/2021/03/29/from-the-archives-interview-with-owen-gleiberman-2004/

Wells attributed those views to unnamed "friendos" with whom he says he conversed.

grounds for expulsion on its own imo

Danny Slaski

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWxrHz-JORE