The war against movie critics

So the editor of Variety thinks film criticism is pointless elitism. Does he speak for the moviegoing public -- or the Hollywood studio execs and corporate media bigshots who'd like to ditch the critics?

By Charles Taylor

Jan. 13, 2003 | Sometimes I think the day-to-day lives of most movie critics could be summed up by a line Amy Madigan speaks in "Streets of Fire": "Everywhere I go, there's always an asshole."

The winner of that distinction this week is Peter Bart, editor in chief of Daily Variety, who, in the Jan. 6 edition of that Hollywood trade publication, published a remarkably misinformed little screed targeted at film critics. Regarding the year-end 10-best lists that most critics have just published, Bart asks, "How could anyone conjure up such a mixed bag of cinematic effluvia?" He goes on to identify three schools of critics.

First, there's the "pop culture is yucky" school, meaning critics who reflexively reject any movie that has found mass acceptance. Most critics file their reviews before movies open and therefore don't know whether a film will be commercially successful or not, a detail Bart neglects to address. Second is the "obscurantist" school, critics who protect their air of authority by only praising obscure movies no one else has seen. Third, there's the "I admit to brain damage school." Apparently this is the category I fall into, since I fit Bart's criterion for brain damage: I praised Brian De Palma's "Femme Fatale." But since Bart admitted that the Guy Ritchie/Madonna "Swept Away" would have been on his own 10-best list, I don't think I'll be getting that CAT scan anytime soon.

The categories may be new but the arguments are the same tired horseshit dragged out every time some blowhard feels the need to condemn movie critics. Big bad Bart huffs and he puffs, but he can't come up with anything more original than the idea that critics are elitist by nature, snobs who can't stomach anything popular, who will only praise the most esoteric, unheard-of movies, and who bear such a heavy workload that their judgments cannot be trusted.

It's the second school, the "obscurantists," who particularly get under Bart's skin. Two of the New York Times' movie critics, Elvis Mitchell and Dave Kehr, come in for his special ire for including "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" (Mitchell and Kehr) and "Morvern Callar" (Mitchell) on their 10-best list. These choices, obscurities according to Bart, are a defense against a "civilian" challenging their opinion. "There's no way to contradict a critic if his favorites were shown only at the Ouagadougou Film Festival." Bart doesn't bother to mention that Mitchell, Kehr and their Times colleagues A.O. Scott and Stephen Holden also list such "outré" choices as "Chicago," "Catch Me If You Can," "About Schmidt," "Adaptation" and "Gangs of New York." (In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I know all four of these critics, and Mitchell and Scott are good friends.) But facts, as we shall see, are inconvenient things to Peter Bart.

The best way to judge the alleged obscurity of both "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" and "Morvern Callar" is to simply list the facts. In 2001, "Warm Water" played at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the Toronto, New York, Chicago, and Palm Springs film festivals. Theatrically, it played in -- brace yourself -- New York (including Long Island); Hartford, Conn.; Boston; the San Francisco Bay Area; Houston; Durham, N.C.; Honolulu; Los Angeles (and surrounding suburbs); Cleveland -- hey, Pete! Just give a shout anytime we're in the neighborhood of Ouagadougou! -- San Diego; Minneapolis; Laramie, Wyo.; Las Vegas; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Wilmington, Del.; Rochester, N.Y.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; Juneau, Alaska; Scranton, Pa.; Milwaukee; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; New Orleans -- embarrassing, ain't it? -- Bismarck, N.D.; Miami; Burlington, Vt.; Rehoboth Beach, Del.; Des Moines; and Tucson, Ariz.

So much for only critics being able to see it.

In addition, the film's director, Shohei Imamura, has, in the course of a long career, been nominated five times for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and won twice. Bart doesn't bother to mention this -- if he's even aware of it -- since Imamura's acclaim and stature would be at cross purposes to his argument.

As for "Morvern Callar," the film opened a few weeks ago in selected cities and will be opening across the country in the coming weeks. It didn't make it to Ouagadougou (isn't he the kid in "About Schmidt"?) but, in 2002, it was in the Director's Fortnight in the Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the prize for best film, and it played the Chicago, Toronto, Telluride, Edinburgh, San Sebastian and Mill Valley film festivals. The "obscure" star of this "obscure" film, Samantha Morton, was nominated for an Oscar for Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown" and co-starred last year in Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report." And the next project for director Lynne Ramsay is adapting that "obscure" little novel "The Lovely Bones."

Next page: Q.: Who is Peter Bart anyway? A.: The producer of "Revenge of the Nerds II"