Keeping it Reel with Film Gordon

Posted on September 4, 2010 at 8:00 am

Thanks so much to my dear friend Tim Gordon for including me on his fall preview show along with film critics Dann Gire (Chicago Daily Herald), Eli Savada (FilmThreat), Wilson Morales (Black Film), Arch Campbell (WJLA-TV), Daryle Lockhart (The Black Box Office), Brandon Fibbs (The Colorado Springs Gazette), Joe Barber (WTOP-FM), Rebecca Cusey (Comcast), TT Stern-Enzi (Cincinnati City Beat), Jen Chaney (Washington Post), Kevin “BDK” McCarthy (FOX 5 DC) and hosts of BlogTalkRadio’s Punch Drunk Critics, Travis Hopson and John Nolan.

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Critics Media Appearances

Christian Toto on How to Be a Movie Blogger

Posted on August 26, 2010 at 8:00 am

My friend and fellow critic Christian Toto has some good advice for anyone thinking of being a movie blogger. He knows what he’s talking about — he’s one of the best. I love his emphasis on focus and finding a unique take, especially his example. Who else has a list of actor comb-overs?

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Critics

Movie Review from the Twitterverse: TwitCritics.com

Posted on November 4, 2009 at 8:00 am

Can you review a movie in 140 characters? TwitCritics thinks you can. This site assembles tweets about current releases and distills them into a rating. You can follow them by RSS feed, on Facebook, or, of course, on Twitter. The reviews so far seem to skew more positive than other aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes, probably because tweeters are more motivated to post when they are feeling enthusiastic. Civilian reviews in general tend to be more positive because people only buy tickets to movies they want to see so there is a selection bias. It is fun to see how the fans react, just another way Twitter is becoming the go-to real-time temperature-taker for the hive mind.
Thanks to my beloved nephew Dante for this suggestion!

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Internet, Gaming, Podcasts, and Apps

Viral Video Film School/Rotten Tomatoes Show

Posted on October 10, 2009 at 4:04 pm

I’m a big fan of Current TV’s weekly Rotten Tomatoes Show with Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox. They have smart, funny reviews of each week’s movies with their own take and comments from viewers, looks at what’s coming next, top 5 lists from stars and directors pushing some new film, and very clever compilations — clips from a dozen different movies with characters saying things like “I have a bad feeling about this.” (It would be nice if they would include a non John-Hughes movie made before 1990 once in a while, though.) I get it as a video podcast and highly recommend it.

Erlich also has a “Viral Video Film School” series on Current that is wonderfully astute, a sort of combination of arts criticism, anthropology, and stand-up comedy. He compiles clips that illuminate YouTube trends I would never otherwise have known about and his commentary is hilarious and ill. Did you know that there are zillions of YouTube clips of people talking about what they just bought? Or about getting laid off? Erlich does, and curates them so expertly you don’t even get the usual “I just spent half an hour watching idiots on YouTube” feeling. (Some mature material)

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Shorts

Critics Critiquing Critics

Posted on January 28, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Critics complain about having to decide how many stars to give a movie. There are times when it does feel very arbitrary to try to assign stars or letter grades to a film. And sometimes I think it creates more confusion than it dispels. My view is that you can only grade a movie within the context of its own aspirations and its intended audience. Otherwise, every review is going to begin, “Well, it’s no Citizen Kane. I also rethink my grade when the movie comes out again on DVD.
Eric Childress of CriticWatch provides his annual dissection of the worst movie critics, those who can’t write, those who don’t know anything about movies or about reviewing them, and worst of all those who will say anything (and I mean anything) about any movie (and I mean any movie) in order to get their name in an ad. I breathed a sigh of relief when the only mention of my site was a positive one but nevertheless resolved to do my best to stay away from his list of overused adjectives. (Note: some strong language, understandable under the circumstances.)

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture