Who is King of the Critics?

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MontyCircus
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Who is King of the Critics?

Post by MontyCircus »

Growing up, Roger Ebert was my guy. I saw his reviews in my local paper and he was the only critic that mattered to me. I'm sure I wasn't alone on that.

Is there anyone that has filled that void? Someone whose reviews are widely read and whose name is on the lips of the masses? Someone whose name is synonymous with prestige and authority?

I don't think so. But if someone were nominated, who would it be?

joeroxy
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by joeroxy »

I always check Mark Kermode's reviews. I mostly agree with his opinions on movies, except for the comedy genre we quite strongly disagree I'm afraid. I like how he manages to put in words what i like/dislike about movies in a way I couldn't do it myself.

More important he is always very charming when he strongly dislikes a movie. Check out his rant on Sex and the city 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHeQeHstrsc

MmzHrrdb
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by MmzHrrdb »

joeroxy wrote:I always check Mark Kermode's reviews. I mostly agree with his opinions on movies, except for the comedy genre we quite strongly disagree I'm afraid. I like how he manages to put in words what i like/dislike about movies in a way I couldn't do it myself.

More important he is always very charming when he strongly dislikes a movie. Check out his rant on Sex and the city 2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHeQeHstrsc


This is who I was about to suggest. I enjoy him tremendously.

paulofilmo
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by paulofilmo »

I'm more of a whore for video essays, but I've enjoyed some David Bordwell. The user AFlickering is in the industry, so it might be worth your while getting in touch!

BillyShears
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by BillyShears »

Me. I am.

I haven't found anyone that could snark like Roger did :(

ribcage
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by ribcage »

BillyShears wrote:Me. I am.


You certainly have a way of cutting straight to the heart of a film in a minimum of words.

CosmicMonkey
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by CosmicMonkey »

I don't know, I'd argue that the critic closest to reaching Ebert's level of prestige and respect is probably Leonard Maltin, I see a lot of other critics reference and quote his work, although personally, I'm not the biggest fan of his work.

AFlickering
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by AFlickering »

paulofilmo wrote:I'm more of a whore for video essays, but I've enjoyed some David Bordwell. The user AFlickering is in the industry, so it might be worth your while getting in touch!


to be 'part of the industry' i'd probably have to actually get paid to write, but i appreciate the namedrop. ;)

i don't think there will ever be another ebert in all honesty. ebert had a particular knack for appealing to both casual filmgoers and cinephiles simultaneously, at a time when film criticism was a much more prestigious vocation. nowadays everyone on the internet is a film critic (just look at this site, ha), and elitism regarding the arts is dying in general, thus criticism is increasingly being devalued, and many fine critics are out of work.

i mentioned this in another thread but Critics Round Up covers most of the critics I find insightful, dispensing with the droves of pandering, soundbitey tabloid types infesting RT and metacritic. personally i would take some of these critics over ebert, but most aren't in remotely the same ballpark in terms of influence, admiration, wide appeal etc. i'm not sure a cult will ever gather around a critic again the way it did around ebert in his pomp. most of the guys who have somewhat of an aura about them have been around nearly as long as ebert has, if not longer, i.e. the likes of jonathan rosenbaum, j. hoberman, dave kehr, david thomson, etc. bordwell is an excellent pick too but, again, he's never going to strike the same populist chord as ebert or kael did. there just doesn't seem to be a collective need for such a personality anymore. for what it's worth, my own roger ebert was walter chaw (incidentally, he is on RT and not CRU - the exception that proves the rule!). he's the one that got me more seriously interested in film and film criticism. too snarky and melodramatic for a lot of people though.

paulofilmo
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by paulofilmo »

this thread reminded me of the sight & sound critics' poll. so i've been rummaging around various critic's top 10s, and i enjoyed this comment from José Teodoro:

You don’t finish a list like this so much as abandon it. A friend, catching me in a moment of paralysis engendered by this task (which requires a mind-boggling combination of examined sentiment, ruthlessness and caprice), suggested that I narrow down my sprawling shortlist by selecting those films that might function as paragons of some genre, movement, national cinema or other larger body of work. But as I narrowed away I saw rather the opposite tendency emerge: I was compelled toward selecting those films that seemed above all singular, films that didn’t fit well in their ostensible niches, films that didn’t easily lend themselves to comparisons, that didn’t necessarily stand for anything greater — films that seemed to be the greatest at nothing so much as just being themselves. These are the films that stain the psyche, speak both to history and to their respective moment, that break something open that can’t be repaired. I like very much that so many of these films are, to an unusual extent, dependent on a central performance of some utterly peculiar, mutant kind of genius: Irène Jacob, Harry Dean Stanton, Gena Rowlands, little Ana Torrent (perhaps most of all). Perversely, because it stings me to think of it, I also like that these ten films do not represent the work of my most beloved directors, nor those directors whose names would appear on an analogous top ten of all time list. (Many such directors have a body of work that’s far more important and interesting than any single, ‘perfect’ film – the best example of this, and for me the most painful absence from my list, being Luis Buñuel. Likewise, no single film noir is as fascinating as the whole of film noir.) All of these films continue to give me pleasure and to offer discoveries. All are exceedingly personal. All remain deeply strange to me.


and something smaller from Jože Dolmark:

This list features ten titles with a kind of innocence that is fully self-conscious – it’s not a cute consideration of film history or film language, and is the innocence of someone who chooses how to look and how to stay alive within this complicated world of modern images.

djross
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Re: Who is King of the Critics?

Post by djross »

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