For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Crit...

None yet... Got one?

• 
  
  March 24, 2010

  hypathio7

  I saw this at the Cleveland International Film Fest. The director, Gerald Peary, was there to answers questions and meet people after the movie.
  
  I really liked the look into the history of film criticism. The doc highlights the earliest players, the major players, and the ma... read morejor events tied to people who wrote about movies through the twentieth century. At the advent of the computer, the doc falters in seeing the real diversity of people writing about movies online, or foreseeing a bit more of social networking's effect on how audiences choose what movie to see. This documentary originally screened at festivals early in 2009 and the director said it was nine years in the making. As most people are aware, the rate of change in technology is fast and accelerating, so I really can't hold it against Mr. Peary that he could not see the popularity of sites like Flixster, Facebook, and Twitter affecting how friends recommend movies to other friends. It simply is the case that the last chapter of the movie on the apparent end of print journalism and the explosion of online reviews with anyone thinking they can be a film critic has already become quite dated.
  
  I enjoyed the interviews with several famous film critics. I appreciated being able to put a face and voice with many of the names. I would have liked to see the interviews structured better with the through line of the doc's story. The graphics could have been better and the editing lagged especially between chapters. Overall it was a worthwhile picture about a topic I love.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  May 23, 2012

  kylegarvey6

  A lame A&E-style waste of time in general. It starts out as an interesting (if not particularly engaging) history lesson, then devolves into some creaky, confused polemic about "these dang kids and their computers" and a bunch of other slapdash nonsense.

  Share This Review
• 
  
  January 1, 2010

  mikeboas

  A good introduction to the history of film criticism. It tries for balance, but I found the film leaned towards the naive view that criticism is threatened by the populist new media -- film blogs and such. Certainly the print-related jobs of the old guard are threatened, but go... read moreod writing will always have a place, whether on the internet or elsewhere.
  
  Criticism does not exist on its own. It is a by-product of film, the beginning of a discussion. Without film critiques and reporting, it would be harder to track down important films, but that's a service film writing provides -- just as you can't have criticism without the primary source, there needs to be a response and continuation of the criticism by the masses. It can't exist in a vacuum.

  Share This Review

• Patricia Clarkson as Narrator
• Roger Ebert
• Owen Gleiberman
• Molly Haskell
• Elvis Mitchell
• Stanley Kauffmann
• Andrew Sarris
• Richard Schickel
• Lisa Schwarzbaum

This list looks lonely.
Add a suggestion!

No quizzes for For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism. Want to create one?

No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

• tsscor
• mwakirow1
• faigan
• jemzcrewko...
• kaynarmust...
• magdim
• khushalyou
• abdessameed

No recent headlines. Got one?

• 

  0912 December 2009

  by mikeboas
  18 Movies
• 

  ayus 2ng movie

  by bladegang44
  388 Movies
• 

  DISNEY

  by shenaangel
  13 Movies
• 

  dodo

  by hadeermoon14
  19 Movies

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?