But have you ever stopped to wonder: Who decided that movies should be taken seriously in the first place?
is a 2009 documentary directed by Gerald Peary that chronicles the evolution, influence, and decline of professional film criticism in the United States. It provides a comprehensive historical narrative, from the early days of silent cinema to the digital age. Documentary Overview Director & Writer Gerald Peary , a long-time critic for The Boston Phoenix Patricia Clarkson : It debuted at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival on March 17, 2009. for the love of movies the story of american film criticism
In an age of Rotten Tomatoes scores aggregated by algorithms, 280-character verdicts on X, and the democratized chaos of Reddit forums, it is easy to forget that film criticism was once a literary art form—a battleground of ideas fought with wit, erudition, and an almost religious devotion to the flickering image. The phrase “for the love of movies” suggests passion; the phrase “the story of American film criticism” suggests history. Together, they form the spine of a century-long narrative about how a rag-tag group of journalists, poets, and outcasts taught a nation how to see. But have you ever stopped to wonder: Who
Simultaneously, at Rolling Stone and Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly brought a rock-and-roll energy to the trade. But the most influential critic of the late 1990s wasn't a print journalist—it was a man with a video camera and a college sweater: Joe Bob Briggs , the drive-in movie critic, who celebrated exploitation, gore, and bad taste with a wild, populist glee. He loved movies not despite their trashiness, but because of it. Documentary Overview Director & Writer Gerald Peary ,
The most significant shift in the public's perception of criticism came via television. Programs like with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert brought film discussion into living rooms nationwide. By replacing "snooty" literary analysis with the iconic "thumbs up/thumbs down" system, they democratized the craft, though some veterans lamented the loss of nuance. The Digital Shift: A Profession Under Siege