Film critics star in front of the camera for a change in “For The Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism,” which is a documentary by Gerald Peary, himself a long-time critic for the “Boston Phoenix” and member of the National Society of Film Critics.
The hour-and-a-half documentary includes interviews with Roger Ebert, Richard Schickel, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Kenneth Turan, Stanley Kauffmann, A.O. Scott, Harry Knowles and the late Pauline Kael.
The film premieres at the SXSW film festival in Austin TX on March 16, though apparently doesn’t have a theatrical distributor—although that can change. For the “Love of Movies” apparently doesn’t even have a one-sheet poster at this juncture.
According to Peary’s website, the documentary includes sections called “the studio’s take revenge: eye-popping scenes from Hollywood movies in which film critic characters are: negatively stereotyped, ridiculed, bullied, murdered, eaten by alien creatures! The films include “Hollywood Shuffle”, “The Dead Pool”, and “Gremlins 2.” Plus, there’s a classic TV routine in which Danny Thomas and Bob Hope spoof Ebert-Siskel.”
There’s also a look at “quote whores,” with Peary promising “a rare glimpse at the shadowy people who provide the rave blurbs for the Hollywood ads. An obscure web reviewer brags that he’s been in ten national advertisements in one year, including offering up the quote that ‘Cats and Dogs is better than Babe.’”
The revenge clips and quote whores certainly rip a page out of studio publicity playbooks by promising juicy content—without giving away much.
The idea to document the state of film criticism is timely, since mainstream media outlets are downsizing the job because of a general economic squeeze. Critic jobs are being eliminated as mainstream media simply buys syndicated commentary.
As the book “Marketing to Moviegoers” notes, consumers now post critiques online and cyberspace is full of amateur critics, which has diminished readership of traditional critics.
Related content:
- YouTube: “For the Love of Moves” Trailer
- Gerald Peary: “For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism”
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