Tag: Critics

Andrew Sarris – Film Critic and Icon

Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris, Annette Insdorf and Ira Deutchman at the 25th Anniversary of the Columbia University Film Festival

I’m sure I am hardly alone in the devastation I’m feeling in hearing of the death of Andrew Sarris. I grew up reading his reviews in the Village Voice, and he was one of the major influences in my love of film.When I was a young aspiring cinephile, the much hyped feud between Sarris and Pauline Kael was in full throttle. Personally, I found myself more frequently in Kael’s corner. Her more emotional response to films seemed more in line with my youthful spirit, while  Sarris seemed both more orthodox and more academic than I was ready to accept at the time. In spite of this, his early embrace of auteurism was the kindling that lit my fire for many filmmakers that otherwise would never have been on my radar screen. Continue reading “Andrew Sarris – Film Critic and Icon”

Film Critics List

Inspired by Gerald Peary’s new doc ” For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism,” and the current crisis in legit film criticism, I’ve compiled a page of links to the film critics that matter to me. You can find the page here. At some point I’d like to to develop this into a live feed that combines the latest articles by these critics in one place. If there’s anyone out there who would like to help me do this, please let me know. In the meantime, I’m open to suggestions about who is missing from this list. Are there archives on line of critics who are no longer with us? I’d like to make this as useful as possible.

UPDATE:
Just for the sake of clarity, these are not critics I necessarily agree with, but they are people I think are serious and worth reading. I’ve both loved and hated all of them at one point or another.

ANOTHER UPDATE:
The suggestions are flooding in, and it’s clear that this list is woefully incomplete. I’ll be adding all legitimate suggestions as I can get to them. This is no longer to be thought of as MY list.