From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren, Eric Baker
Subject: Eric, who the hell is Ndugu?
I mentioned earlier in the week that I wanted to discuss the issue of film critics and whether they really do, as David Edelstein argued in the Slate Movie Club, have wildly different tastes in movies. Edelstein was responding to Variety editor Peter Bart's inane charge that movie critics are a bunch of obscurantists. While I definitely agree that it is just as dangerous to lump film critics into a collective "we" as it is to lump moviegoers together -- as in, "that's not what 'the people' want to see," as if all audiences shared a brain -- I was nevertheless struck this year by how similar many critics' end-of-the-year lists were. Here in Chicago, for example, Tribune critics Michael Wilmington and Mark Caro shared, I think, six films and even had the same three films in order, except one had them at 6-8 while the other had them at 7-9. (Sorry, I can't be more specific because the article is at home and I can't access it online.) And did any film critic in the country not have 'The Pianist' or 'Talk to Her' on their lists? 'Far From Heaven' and 'Y tu mama tambien,' were also almost universal choices.
And then there's Sam, Eric and myself, who all managed to rank 'Punch-Drunk Love' as the best film of the year. By my count, out of a possible thirty choices, only 16 movies were mentioned between our three lists, and only five or six were unique to one list. Even our worst-of lists are pretty much the same, as I too would rank 'Hollywood Ending,' 'XXX' and 'Lovely and Amazing' right up there. I would also like to add to this list: 'Attack of the Clones,' 'Orange County' (please tell me you are kidding, joeyc), 'Queen of the Damned,' 'John Q,' 'The Scorpion King,' and 'Mr. Deeds.
Believe me, I'm not really trying to argue that film critics are interchangeable. I mean, Sam, Eric and I have definitely had our disagreements over the past few months -- '8 Mile,' 'Solaris' among them -- as did A.O. Scott, Sarah Kerr, Edelstein and Roger Ebert over at Slate regarding 'Adaptation,' 'About Schmidt' and others. But this year I was able to see a little clearer why so many people regard film critics as one collective voice to consider -- or, more commonly (unfortunately), to dismiss completely.
I can't say much on the issue about Todd Solondz versus Alexander Payne because I haven't seen 'Citizen Ruth' or 'About Schmidt.' However, I'm not sure you framed the debate accurately, Eric. "But when Adam and other critics poo-poo Solondz for demeaning his audience, I just don't see why they have a different reaction to Payne ('Election' and 'Citizen Ruth' use the same techniques as 'About Schmidt.')" I don't think the primary criticism of Solondz is that he demeans his audience. As Salon's Charles Taylor argues in his dismissal of 'Storytelling,' Solondz is a filmmaker who can never resist getting laughs at the expense of those blue-collar people he's supposed to be so concerned about. The common sensibility of these filmmakers is that they invite the audience to share their feelings of superiority to the people they put on screen." Patronizing his audience, then, is essentially just a byproduct of his condescension toward his characters. As convincing as Taylor and other critics are, I have a hard time buying it simply because it strikes me as incredibly reductive to think that Solondz makes movies about freakshow characters because he needs to improve his self-esteem. Isn't a more plausible argument that he simply does relate to these types of characters? I'm with Sam, however, that 'Storytelling' just didn't work for me. The classroom scenes during the Fiction section are incredibly funny, especially if you have ever been part of any kind of writing workshop. It's deadly and hilariously accurate. But I just got bogged down during Non-Fiction, though I can't completely articulate why other than it lost its dark comic edge. I simply stopped laughing with the characters -- or, if you believe Charles Taylor, "at" them.
Monday I'll write about 'The Pianist' and 'Max.' This weekend I plan to see 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,' and 'City of God.' Guys, up for a Movie Club next week about George Clooney's directorial debut?
-Adam
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