Criticker.com

Some time ago I noticed that there was a group of Criticker users who seemed to positively adore the films of Henry Jaglom. Naturally, this struck me as an absurd prospect bearing further investigation.

Here are their ratings for 1983's little-seen Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?:



None of these users has rated more than a few hundred movies in total, but each of them has rated at least ten other Jaglom films, all with scores of 90+, almost all in the fall of 2010 (none active after 2011). Interestingly, this was after the announcement of but before the release of Criterion's big BBS set, which included Jaglom's 1971 A Safe Place and briefly rekindled interest in his work.

I even-more-briefly entertained the idea that they were a group of True Believer students or proteges, as that would be funnier than a fanboy or Criterion intern or even Jaglom himself doing it, but the usernames, avatars, and short, generic bios are way too similar:

I love movies. I like most genres except horror and fantasy. Favorite genres are thriller, drama, comedy, crime and action. I especially love independent films.

Movie buff

I love movies!

There are so many great movies. I wish I could see them all.

Big movie fan. Classics are my favorites but I like most genres.

There's nothing like watching a good movie.

I love movies and birds.

Sure. I bet she's real fond of red herons.

Bumping this 'cause it was blanked-out almost immediately after posting when post formatting went down and it popped in my head today and I burst out laughing 'cause IT'S HILARIOUS Y'ALL

I had no idea who Jaglom was, but I guess I have to check him out now.


A bunch of those accounts have featured reviews for his 2010 film Queen of the Lot, which would have been released around the same time the accounts were created, so my guess is that this was part of some viral marketing campaign for that film in particular.

It's funny because Jaglom himself was an Orson Welles sockpuppet.