Some kids watch movies and dream of making movies.
I watched movies and dreamed of making film criticism.
Ever since I got my first beat-up old copy of The New York Times Film Reviews 1913-1970: A One Volume Selection, ever since I lied to my parents and secretly stayed up way past my bedtime to watch Siskel and Ebert (a true — and truly sad — story), I have loved film criticism. Loved to read it, loved to write it. A life spent in movie theaters, talking, thinking, writing, arguing, defending, attacking, celebrating movies? What’s better than that?
So when Dana Harris and Eric Kohn asked me if I wanted to help start a new blog at Indiewire devoted to the world of film criticism, I played it cool but I was beyond excited. Here, suddenly, was an even cooler dream: a dream of getting paid not just to write film criticism, but to read it too.
Hopefully this dream will work out well for all of us, because I’ll be reading all that film criticism to bring the best of it to you, and to make Criticwire an even more vital home for film criticism than it already is. If, like me, you consider yourself as much a connoisseur of film criticism as films themselves, then this blog is for you. And if you’re a more casual reader of film writing, this blog is for you too. We’re going to be all-inclusive at Criticwire. Both circles and squares are welcome (note: if you get that reference, we’re going to get along famously. If you don’t, don’t worry; we’re just getting started).
As Eric laid out in his announcement yesterday, Criticwire will combine conversation with aggregation (I’d call it “Our Patented ‘Con-gregation’ Method,” but that word already means something else). We’ll be bringing you the smartest criticism from the around Internet, and we’ll be providing a little of our own as well. We’ll draw heavily on the 300-plus critics who regularly provide their reviews and grades to Indiewire, but not exclusively. One of the things I hope to do with this blog is to spotlight young and unheralded voices alongside established greats. If you read (or write) something you think deserves a mention on Criticwire, send it to us at critic@indiewire.com. I can’t promise we’ll link to all of them, but I can promise we’ll link to the best of them.
This is an incredible time to be a fan of film criticism. The Internet has provided an unlimited forum for critical voices, both old and new. You don’t even have to stay up past your bedtime to find them. We’re excited to be a part of it. We hope you will be too.
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