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David Elliott's Final Column
MovieHound: I do not remember Duncan's music reviews. But any man who can sustain 38 years of critical writing on movies at one paper is obviously either a profoundly committed writer or working for the BAG (Bedlam Asylum Gazette). In Duncan's case, it is the former, and though he wrote in a different manner from a different angle than mine, it was truly his own, with a clear and savvy voice that never fell below standards increasingly rare in this strange trade. He also invited me to follow him at the Reader, and though he got the fat years, and I got a slice of the lean, it was very much worth doing. What I most miss in movie journalism is the former plethora of voices. Well, the ones that can really write, like Duncan. Thanks for your keen support.— June 15, 2012 5 p.m.
David Elliott's Final Column
Jan, thanks for being such a fine, loyal, responsive reader. Criticism is not about agreement, as any group of critics will instantly demonstrate. It is about the shared stimulus and crossfire of opinion, with the occasional idea lodging creatively in the mind. This is the yeast that can help artists like yourself perfect your works. Dance, teach, flourish.......— June 15, 2012 10:40 a.m.
David Elliott's Final Column
Julie, thanks much. But who would care to live in a culture, even a dazed pop culture, where people can "always agree." While critics tend to preen and pontificate a little, the smart ones don't want servile readers. By the way, I spent my last U-T years also on the fourth floor, in a small room with four other writers. Despite the metal walls, I felt less like a cat on a hot tin roof than down on the busy third floor.— June 15, 2012 10:35 a.m.
David Elliott's Final Column
Marcia, thanks for past loyalty and present remarks. Thoughtful film criticism is just not a growth industry. It does not serve "the numbers," except for all the people who want to bounce their own film reactions off a reliable, savvy voice. But new critics will arise for a new era. Otherwise, no culture.— June 15, 2012 10:29 a.m.
David Elliott's Final Column
Thistle: Thanks so much for the nice remarks, and glad you saw Kid with a Bike. I wonder if that title has kept some adults away from one of the year's most adult films. Keep taking chances!— June 15, 2012 10:13 a.m.
David Elliott's Final Column
Thank you Michael. You were a master of cogent columnizing beyond my powers. Watching the documentary "The Island President" not long ago, it did occur to me that his nation, The Maldives, might be saved from the rising tide of global warning by mighty Texas-Dutch sea walls made of cornbread thangs, your culinary specialty. David.— June 14, 2012 1:14 p.m.
Son of Fare Thee Well: David Elliott
Nan: Thank you for achieving the Zen koan of eloquence I never quite managed to distill in 44 years of film reviewing. YesGrrrl: Let us all please let go of the phrase "let go" (as in "We had to let him go"). It is the squishiest and most feckless camouflage in modern journalism and management. It lends a fatuous patina of wounded sympathy, as though the boss was dragged to a painful decision, against his or her will, by forces so great that even a Greek god or an Ayn Rand hero could not have resisted them. I doubt that the Aztec priests, heartlessly watching a heart-less body tumble down the pyramid, said with wistful chagrin, "Well, we had to let him go." If I can help to retire that phrasing from English, I shall be a writer fulfilled.— June 14, 2012 10:35 a.m.
David Elliott's Final Column
My thanks to all Commentators. Sorry if that sounds like Stalin (he almost never heard a discouraging word, except from Hitler, and even he snuggled-up for a while). I always welcomed debate and liked a good disagreement, as long as it didn't descend to the level of "awesome" and "it sucks," which is the dialog of two popcorn weevils sliding across a buttered carpet in the lobby. Monaghan, I don't agree that most movies now are lousy. The basic ratios have been about the same for a long time, but the noise level is set by the commercial shouters backed by money, and those have a bigger bullhorn. As my lists imply, I found it a fairly rich 19 months of watching films pass in review (and quite a few worthy films I did not mention). But most people don't take chances. They get stuck in buzz-plex mode. Critics serve readers and films by urging people to get out of that lazy groove, take a chance, and then share adult talk after the show. The afterlife of a movie is not the box office report, it is the discussion. (No, I won't be going to the Times-Picayune, but every real critic catches a streetcar named Desire).— June 13, 2012 6:27 p.m.
Son of Fare Thee Well: David Elliott
Scott, Thanks. The pictures were terrific. The sentiments were ... well, directly from the theme park known as Mondo Marks. After all these years, we still get the gag about Apu and pooh (it's like Jerry Lewis shoving a joke glass in his mouth, the poor ham just can't help it). If am a saint, then I guess Pierre Fresnay as Vincent De Paul in *Monsieur Vincent* (another movie I tried to show you in class) was just another goodfella like the recently late Henry Hill. By the way, the Ray movie you ducked in my class was not, I believe. part of his magnificent *Apu Trilogy*, but what may well be his greatest single film, *The Music Room*. The very same movie of which Werner Herzog stated, in front of a Chicago crowd, "You must see this." The very same movie that Criterion recently put out on DVD, looking more beautiful than I ever saw it in theaters. As you are a growing critic and a star blogger, I am saint enough to loan you my copy. Then we can meet at the Chicken Pie Shop and nosh the nuances (alas, no curry gravy). Good luck to you and Matt. Darlena: I am the neon Exit door of critical leavers. I left the *Chicago Daily News* in 1978, the *Chicago Sun-Times* in 1982, *USA Today* in 1984, the *San Diego Union-Tribune* in 2008, *SDNN.com* in 2010, and the *Reader* in 2012. You know, at this rate I'll have to leave this life in ... 60 years (source: *Citizen Kane*). But thanks for caring.— June 13, 2012 5:28 p.m.
Reviews!
Matt, thanks for the plug. Much appreciated!— May 25, 2012 6:44 p.m.