I went to a panel discussion of film critics at the Coolidge Corner Theatre tonight. They had some well known critics including several I've read in the Boston Globe and Entertainment Weekly. Parts were interesting but it took a while to get good. Tonight's session was Introduction to the Current State of Film Critics and since it started late, the first hour was really an introduction to how these critics got introduced to criticism.
Most seemed to write from an early age and many started as music critics. I wanted to ask how many had formal training but didn't get a chance to. It wasn't at all clear from their answers. Most cited Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris as influences.
They discussed the distinction between reviewing and critiquing. Reviews are meant to be read before the reader sees the film and critiques are read after. In the reviews I've written I've struggled with this distinction. It's certainly not easy to describe enough about a film to talk about it without giving things away. And for some films I've wanted to write criticism (like I did with the Sopranos finale) but I figure my readers prefer reviews. I'd love to hear feedback on this.
I currently read very little about a film before seeing it. I usually depend on aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic to determine if I want to see a film, and then after seeing it I read reviews I find via imdb. I do this because I find trailers and reviews typically give away too much. The panel complained about trailers and said that studies have shown that audiences prefer trailers that give away too much.
I was very surprised to hear some of them writing in the mainstream press say they wanted people to read their "reviews" after seeing the film. Several described their self-imposed rules about giving things away which seemed pretty reasonable. However several then went off about spoilers and how at sometime you have to be able to talk about them. I stand by my comments from 2 years ago on the topic that spoilers are fine as long as you mark them and there is no statute of limitations because it's rude to ruin things for younger generation. If you want to write criticism to be read after people have seen the film, mark it such and give away anything you want. Usually when I read reviews after seeing the film I'm frustrated that they don't talk enough about the film.
They also spoke (and almost argued) about the effect of editors on their work. Certainly the print publications are feeling more space pressure. The space devoted to reviews is less that it was. Some complained about editorial influences on reviews but only one admitted to it actually happening to them and then it was only once. That example was for Fahrenheit 9/11 and after finding out she was writing a negative review, the editor had another reviewer write a positive one to run along side hers. While that is annoying, it didn't change her review. Some also complained about not being able to write about their favorite obscure movie vs some mainstream blockbuster of the week. Others recognized the limitations of the job. It struck me that editors were doing their jobs of, you know editing. It also struck me that the critics who were going on and on tonight could have used some editors.
They were very happy when one questioner mentioned that when they read a review that referred to an old film they weren't familiar with, they would order it from netflix. One lamented the decline of the theater experience but really appreciated that smaller films can get a larger audience. One commented that perhaps the long tail economic theory would help to employ film critics. Their other comment about the internet is that more and more people are becoming critics since anyone can write a review. One lamented that people without a knowledge of film were doing so. I'll admit to taking a bit of offense at that, particularly after so many said they started out writing reviews for themselves or small publications.
Overall it was pretty good and I appreciated the opportunity. I'll try to go to the two sessions tomorrow, if I can figure out where to park in Coolidge Corner, it's not easy.
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