Benefits of Reading Film Critics
When I was growing up, my mother would watch Siskel and Ebert every Sunday after she got home from church. Which of course meant that I watched it, too. When I later acquired my own TV in my bedroom I continued watching it, in some part because it was on and I liked having background noise, but also out of a mild interest in what they had to say about what was coming out.
Not too long back, I discovered Roger Ebert's web site where he's still writing movie reviews (since he can't do television anymore); the show isn't on anymore and I had stopped watching a while back when Ebert left, his reviews were at least intelligent (he has good reasons why he likes or doesn't like something, and can explain it in such a way that you could get a good idea whether or not you might feel the same way) and his replacement co-host was ... well, not so much, and I wasn't all that interested in watching his show (apparently wasn't alone in that, either :-)). I've been popping back there every now and then to scan the new reviews that come up.
And I'm being reminded of the reasons why I watched that show for so long, reasons that didn't consciously occur to me until after it was gone from my world view for a while. Sure, they had to cover all the popular big release Hollywood blockbusters I rarely cared about, but they also reviewed a lot of other things and it was through them that I learned about movies that aren't being widely released or heavily advertised. Several of the movies I've seen and absolutely loved over the last decade or so I heard about from that show, and most times only from that show.
If nothing else, film critics can be good for that. For example, I might have thought there was jack shit out right now. But now I find there is this. And now I really want to see that. :-)
Not too long back, I discovered Roger Ebert's web site where he's still writing movie reviews (since he can't do television anymore); the show isn't on anymore and I had stopped watching a while back when Ebert left, his reviews were at least intelligent (he has good reasons why he likes or doesn't like something, and can explain it in such a way that you could get a good idea whether or not you might feel the same way) and his replacement co-host was ... well, not so much, and I wasn't all that interested in watching his show (apparently wasn't alone in that, either :-)). I've been popping back there every now and then to scan the new reviews that come up.
And I'm being reminded of the reasons why I watched that show for so long, reasons that didn't consciously occur to me until after it was gone from my world view for a while. Sure, they had to cover all the popular big release Hollywood blockbusters I rarely cared about, but they also reviewed a lot of other things and it was through them that I learned about movies that aren't being widely released or heavily advertised. Several of the movies I've seen and absolutely loved over the last decade or so I heard about from that show, and most times only from that show.
If nothing else, film critics can be good for that. For example, I might have thought there was jack shit out right now. But now I find there is this. And now I really want to see that. :-)