Indieville : Critic watch

Film Programming: A New Wilderness for Former Film Critics.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:35:00 GMT

Only two days removed from the announcement that Newsweek's David Ansen would be taking over as the artistic director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, the L.A. Weekly's chief film critic Scott Foundas has taken the Associate Program Director gig at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where he had previously served as part of the New York Film Festival's selection committee. Whether or not Foundas' position at the Weekly will actually be filled remains to be seen and all of this comes...(read more)

If movies are niche, shouldn't critics be too?

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:50:00 GMT

The Playlist is a useful blog that aggregates the day's major entertainment news. They're also been dabbling in reviews, which is how I came across Drew Taylor's take on the acclaimed if by no means Romanian film "Police, Adjective," which is screening at the New York Film Festival. Taylor calls it "the most boring fucking movie that's ever been filmed. Ever," as well as "pretentious nothingness," and gives it an F. At the end of the review is a curious...(read more)

Buying in and selling out.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:30:00 GMT

The Toronto International Film Festival ends tomorrow, but most journalists have already skipped ahead to extrapolating trends. There's much loose talk about potential Oscar front-runners -- "Up In The Air" apparently has a lock -- and much free-floating despair about the tough climate for making, purchasing and marketing indie films. But at least one person thinks the recession's been good for movies, by getting those arty directors to tone it down. Peter Howell of the Toronto...(read more)

"At The Movies" about as good as it could be.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:16:19 GMT

We're a long way from Siskel & Ebert, but the new "At The Movies" -- featuring The New York Times' A.O. Scott and The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips -- is on the air. They are, of course, the replacements for the short-lived, universally reviled duo of the Bens (Lyons and Mankiewicz); Mankiewicz himself didn't seem to get people too fired up, but Lyons was such an aggressively stupid guy that a site specifically devoted to relentlessly dogging him (a Web site that's...(read more)

Film critics gone wild.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:00:40 GMT

Actually, that's a misleading headline if there ever was one, considering that A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips look more buttoned up than ever in this promo for the new season of "At the Movies." But after a year in the wilderness, I share the excitement of Karina Longworth and Anne Thompson in seeing the film critics from the New York Times and Chicago Tribune engage in serious discussions about films, though judging by that picture, I'd be afraid to say otherwise for fear of being...(read more)

"Halloween II" is, theoretically, awesome.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:40:00 GMT

I love Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects." I think it's one of the 30 best movies of the decade. But, according to my critic peers, that can't possibly be the case, because we're all horrific snobs -- or so the studios think. Dan Kois at New York is done with what he calls "the Summer of Film-Critic Irrelevance." Since neither of today's two major genre releases, "The Final Destination" or "Halloween II," is getting screened for critics...(read more)

How Rotten Tomatoes has changed film criticism.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:40:00 GMT

The uproar Armond White raised by panning "District 9" has raised a lot of interesting points about The State of Film Criticism. It prompted Slate's Daniel Engber to fret over his original pan of the film; being one of the few dissenting voices on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes was, he wrote, "beginning to make me nervous." So Engber did a little number-crunching and ranked 20 prominent critics from most to least contrarian based on how often they agreed with the Tomatometer...(read more)

Armond White and the art of trolling.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:10:00 GMT

There are really two kinds of people who care about constantly controversial New York Press critic Armond White. There are those who care about keeping up with film criticism regardless of what the movie is; White's a veteran critic, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, etc. He is Important, and you read him. And then there's the rabid geek who lurks on Rotten Tomatoes, waiting for someone to challenge his or her (or, c'mon, his) sense of priorities. Like "The 700 Club"...(read more)

The critic and the pirate.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:09:24 GMT

Coming to an airport romance novel shelf near you? Roger Friedman, critic/columnist for Fox News online, caused as big a stir as a film critic seems able to these difficult days when he posted a review of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," having illegally downloaded the leaked, unfinished version of the film. The internet immediately went into paroxyms of self-righteousness, with Ain't It Cool News, among others, relishing in a chance to take the moral high ground by calling for Friedman's...(read more)

The year in top tens.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:18:49 GMT

IFC Films' Keaton Kail has been so kind as to pass along the following endearingly obsessive spreadsheet he's put together ranking the year's films by their mentions in critic top ten lists. I'll be resurfacing this post each week or so with updates as the lists continue to be unveiled. Here's the big breakdown (click on the image to see it full-size): And here are separate charts breaking out docs and horror films:......(read more)

Manohla Dargis is mean.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:52:36 GMT

Or so says Patrick Goldstein at his blog at the LA Times, deeming her a "movie killer" and adding: It's an open secret in indie Hollywood that no one wants Manohla Dargis to review their movie, fearing that the outspoken critic will tear their film limb from limb. It's the ultimate backhanded compliment, since what they really fear is Manohla's persuasiveness -- that she'll write a review whose combination of vitriolic snarkiness and intellectual heft will actually persuade...(read more)

All thumbs™.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:51:19 GMT

RogerEbert.com has switched over from the usual four star rating system to a mix of stars and thumbs, which makes for an interesting repurposing of the two digit approval system over which the critic got into a tiff with Disney. The thumbs, which have been sort of replaced by "See It/Skip It/Rent It" on the new incarnation of "At the Movies," weren't going to see air time with Bens Lyons and Mankiewicz -- Ebert and the late Gene Siskel's family share ownership of the trademark...(read more)

Same old song?

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:55:19 GMT

The heart of the newest issue of Cineaste is a massive symposium on that favorite topic of debate of film writers -- print criticism versus online criticism, critics versus bloggers, and on and on. I'll 'fess up to only scanning it -- this used to be a treasured topic of mine as well, but lately it's seemed awfully insular, much retreading of old arguments with no ground gained (is there ground to be gained?), focused on medium when its content that's actually at stake. As laid out...(read more)

The Roger Ebert of our age.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:35:34 GMT

Or could he be more the Gene Siskel? Clearly, he's aiming for both... Ben Mankiewicz better watch his back. The new season of "At the Movies" starts September 6, for anyone playing along at home. + Video: My break out in "House Bunny" (BenLyons.com)......(read more)

Mourning Manny Farber.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:04:38 GMT

More on the passing of critic Manny Farber: J. Hoberman at the Village Voice (alongside a reprint of his 1981 essay "Termite Makes Right"): Farber wasn't like other critics. He didn't proselytize and he didn't create systems. Rather, he articulated his idiosyncratic perception, which is to say: He had a sensibility. Farber was as punchy and hardboiled, at least in his prose, as Sam Fuller (a director he admired) and as masterful a vernacular stylist as S. J. Perelman (who, knowledgeable...(read more)