Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

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EP Millstone
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Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by EP Millstone »

More than a few SSO members seem to put much stock in the opinions of film critics/film reviewers. Personally, I don't give a rodent's rump about the opinions of critics and reviewers, the necessity of which is questionable, IMO, particularly in The Internet Age when anybody and everybody can share and publish his/her opinions. Indeed, I think that several erudite and eloquent SSO members could give The Pros a run for their money.

To those who enjoy reading film criticism and film reviews, who are your favorite critics and reviewers, and why are they your favorites?

To those aspiring film critics and reviewers, who are your inspirations?

What qualities do you think make a successful criticism/review and superior critic/reviewer?

On the flip side, what qualities characterize a rotten criticism/review and inferior critic/reviewer?
"Start every day off with a smile and get it over with." -- W.C. Fields
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monsieur_sniffles
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by monsieur_sniffles »

To be honest, there's more critics I go out of my way to avoid, than ones I actively try to follow...

I mean, I enjoy Vern. I like that he makes no distinction between oscar-bait prestige, art movies, or straight to streaming cheap genre films. And that he seems to go out of his way to avoid 'ain't I a smarty pants?' critic jargon.

And, uh, David Edelstein is cool... I'm glad he got fired from NPR, as his speaking voice almost made me hate him. And, uh... I don't know. See my opening sentence.
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Detective Jim McLeod
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by Detective Jim McLeod »

I miss the days of movie reviewers on newscasts and when Siskel and Ebert had their own show, I discovered so many foreign film gems and great documentaries from watching that.

I don't get a newspaper any more, I used to read the reviews in the New York Daily News but they don't print them anymore, they don't even have movie showtimes listed. I am forced to go online now.

I sometimes check RottenTomatoes but I couldn't tell you the names of any reviewers on there.

There is a bunch of "reviewers" on Youtube, but it is a bunch of loud, moronic types with no knowledge of film history, they try to be funny and seem to be auditioning for a reality show.

There is one Youtube movie reviewer that I like, she is called "deepfocuslens" and she is very thoughtful and intelligent in her reviews, she does both classic films and current ones.
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Feinberg
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by Feinberg »

Ebert said it was important for the review to be entertaining in of itself for many people liked to read the newspaper front to back even if they weren't looking for a recommendation of what to see.
I started to read Pauline Kael in high school. I didn't always agree with her assessments but I liked her style. I recall laughing out loud at her review of The Greatest Story Ever Told. I'm paraphrasing ... "the camera pans the crowd at Golgotha and by golly, there's Ed Wynn!'
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monsieur_sniffles
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by monsieur_sniffles »


I don't get a newspaper any more, I used to read the reviews in the New York Daily News but they don't print them anymore,


That actually reminds me, there was a guy in the Post I used to hate-read religiously. He was this frat-bro doofus who was convinced he was the Oscar Wilde of the kegger. With that said, I will give him credit for seemingly possessing a pretty incredible work ethic. Most critics would 'cover' Sundance and file three reviews in the entire week (whenever they sobered up enough to write, I suppose), while he would file like five or six a day. So I'll give credit where it's due.
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Swithin
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by Swithin »

Detective Jim McLeod wrote: February 8th, 2023, 9:03 am

I don't get a newspaper any more, I used to read the reviews in the New York Daily News but they don't print them anymore, they don't even have movie showtimes listed. I am forced to go online now.
Your post brings back memories of the Daily News arts writers and reviewers of long ago: Wanda Hale, Kay Gardella, Ann Guarino, John Chapman (theater), and especially Kate Cameron (whose real name was Loretta King.)
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Detective Jim McLeod
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by Detective Jim McLeod »

[/quote]

Your post brings back memories of the Daily News arts writers and reviewers of long ago: Wanda Hale, Kay Gardella, Ann Guarino, John Chapman (theater), and especially Kate Cameron (whose real name was Loretta King.)
[/quote]

I remember Kay Gardella, she was the TV critic. I believe Rex Reed was the movie critic for the News for awhile.
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EP Millstone
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by EP Millstone »

Thank you, Everyone Who Responded!
skimpole wrote: February 8th, 2023, 3:42 am . . . Here's a list of the 1000 greatest movies: https://theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_al ... _table.php. If you haven't seen half of them, you can't consider yourself a serious critic before you do.
"The human animal differs from the lesser primates in his passion for lists." -- H. Allen Smith[

To my dying day, I'll never understand the mania for lists.

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” -– Marcus Aurelius

Wise words that I, for one, wish that everyone -- especially movie reviewers -- would bear in mind when expressing their opinions and perspectives and also before automatically regarding opinions and P.O.V.s as gospel.
monsieur_sniffles wrote: February 8th, 2023, 7:12 am . . . I mean, I enjoy Vern. I like that he makes no distinction between oscar-bait prestige, art movies, or straight to streaming cheap genre films. And that he seems to go out of his way to avoid 'ain't I a smarty pants?' critic jargon.
Thanks for the link to the website of Vern, M. Sniffles. I briefly perused some of his reviews. I like his self-deprecating style ("read the rest of this sh!t"). My first impression of the Outlaw Film Critic was that he was a soul brother to Joe Bob Briggs. However after reading a smidgen of Vern's reviews, my first impression was wrong. Vern isn't as irreverent or as humorous as is JBB.

. . . whom I miss reading every Sunday. Briggs' film reviews used to appear in a local newspaper (which I won't promote by naming it) until publishers/editors yanked it after some cranky biddy wrote a letter complaining about Briggs' "sexist" humor. Now the rag's star film critic is a conventional, self-important elitist with predilections for French flicks and actresses and with an annoying habit of composing grandiloqent pontifications and expressing his opinions as facts.

Regarding "smarty pants" critics, that epithet accurately described another movie reviewer on another local rag. He too also had a propensity for bombast. He'd review, IMO, silly-ass comic-book adaptations and, IMO, Sci-Fi shlock with an -- to me, ridiculous -- academic and scholarly tone, tossing in mythological and theological references and name-dropping Important Thinkers such as Plato, Descartes, and Kierkegaard. Yo, Poindexter! You're reviewing Batman, not writing a thesis on Ecce Homo!
"Start every day off with a smile and get it over with." -- W.C. Fields
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Arsan444
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by Arsan444 »

I liked reading Pauline Kael, but my favorite was Stanley Kauffmann. I didn't always agree with him, but his essays and reviews were entertaining and insightful, explaining in detail why a movie worked or didn't.
When in doubt, have another one.
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Swithin
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by Swithin »

Arsan444 wrote: February 8th, 2023, 9:04 pm I liked reading Pauline Kael, but my favorite was Stanley Kauffmann. I didn't always agree with him, but his essays and reviews were entertaining and insightful, explaining in detail why a movie worked or didn't.
I knew Stanley and his wife Laura. Lovely, kind people. Stanley wrote a few lines in The New Republic about a project I created. But in addition to my positive personal feelings about Stanley, I always enjoyed reading his reviews, and as you say found them engaging whether I agreed with them or not.
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Feinberg
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by Feinberg »

I used to buy the Village Voice in high school to read Andrew Sarris.
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TikiSoo
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by TikiSoo »

Image

I love his enthusiasm, his "set" decorations usually Barbie dolls dressed in charactor costumes and he usually picks out one or two insights about the movie that only a regular classic movie lover would notice or can about.

Here's his All About Eve review just for an example:

https://youtu.be/LBWWFmqToP8

Steve's a local guy, I hope to bump into him sometime when he's visiting his family...or even better, catch him in a show.
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monsieur_sniffles
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Re: Your Favorite Film Critics/Reviewers

Post by monsieur_sniffles »

My first impression of the Outlaw Film Critic was that he was a soul brother to Joe Bob Briggs. However after reading a smidgen of Vern's reviews, my first impression was wrong. Vern isn't as irreverent or as humorous as is JBB.

Yeah, he doesn't lay on the 'character' as hard as Briggs (not that that's a bad thing, as I really enjoyed Briggs for a period. Unfortunately, he's pivoted to a corny Rush Limbaugh-lite routine of late.)
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