Here’s what I would like to learn from a movie about film critics: What makes them pertinent to the needs of society? Has the self-empowering progress of the blogosphere endangered the future of the profession? Most importantly, what kind of a fascinating loon do you have to be to watch movies all the time?
You will find answers to none of these provocative questions in Gerald Peary’s For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism, a light, impact-free survey of talking heads that adds absolutely nothing new to the general perception of the practice. Those viewers whose interest in watching critics talk about themselves parallels the curiosity behind, say, wanting to see an Asian elephant at the zoo won’t find themselves disappointed. (I can see it now: “Oh, so that’s what an A.O. Scott looks like…”) Everyone else may find the content lacking a much-needed edge.
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Yay! It’s here. First thing’s first: two of the three tributes will, indeed, be presented to Daniel Day-Lewis and Shyam Benega; the other will focus on composer Michel Legrand (awesome). Other highlights: special screenings of King Vidor’s The Big Parade, a documentary about Val Lewton directed by Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones, a program dedicated to George Kuchar, and the premiere of Gerald Peary’s doc FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: The Story of American Film Criticism – which, theoretically, I’m in. See the full schedule, cribbed from the press release, after the jump.
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