For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Gerald Peary

Writer:

Gerald Peary (written by)

Genre:

Documentary

Cast

Jami Bernard	...	Herself
Kevin Carragee	...	(voice)
Jason Carter	...	(voice)
Patricia Clarkson	...	Narrator (voice)
Richard Corliss	...	Himself
David D'Arcy	...	Himself
Roger Ebert	...	Himself
Otis Ferguson	...	Himself
Owen Gleiberman	...	Himself
Molly Haskell	...	Herself
J. Hoberman	...	Himself
Ed Hoopman	...	(voice)
Harlan Jacobson	...	Himself
Stanley Kauffmann	...	Himself
Stuart Klawans	...	Himself
Harry Jay Knowles	...	Himself (as Harry Knowles)
Karina Longworth	...	Herself
Leonard Maltin	...	Himself
Janet Maslin	...	Herself
Elvis Mitchell	...	Himself
Wesley Morris	...	Himself
Lisa Nesselson	...	Herself
John Powers	...	Himself
Rex Reed	...	Himself
B. Ruby Rich	...	Herself
Kim Romano	...	(voice)
Jonathan Rosenbaum	...	Himself
Andrew Sarris	...	Himself
Richard Schickel	...	Himself
Lisa Schwarzbaum	...	Herself
A.O. Scott	...	Himself
David Sterritt	...	Himself
Mike Szymanski	...	Himself
Kenneth Turan	...	Himself
Scott Weinberg	...	Himself
Lewis D. Wheeler	...	(voice)
Michael Wilmington	...	Himself

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

AG Flims

Good but lacking

Documentary about film criticism. It follows it from the days of silent cinema to the present. We're shown or told about the most influential film critics ever. Most memorable are Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris and their debates through reviews. It also makes it clear that film critics are now being phased out left and right. The Internet has taken over. Many papers and magazines either cut down on their movie review staff or deleted them all together. It makes you wonder where will the next film critics come from and what they will be like. It's good and interesting but somewhat slapdash in execution. Scenes seem to wander all over the place and sometimes it gets WAY too intelligent for its own good (the auteur theory explained is all over the place). It's not a bad movie--just a good one. The director seems to lack a clear point of view and I wasn't sure what exactly he was trying to get at. Some of the commentary by critics is amusing and the clips from old movies are always welcome...but this left me kind of cold. I give it a 7.