The Reeler

« Hoffman Driving 'Capote' Steamroller to the Upper East Side | Main | Sundance Swag Cannot Cripple Kaufman's Conscience »

January 11, 2006

Andrew Sarris Now Officially Repeating Himself

In the interest of preemption, I just want to say that I am not the type of lazy, bloodless blogger inclined to construct posts entirely out of other people's quotes. The Reeler is far from perfect, but at least it tries to approach its beat with some intact sense of imagination.

Which brings me to Andrew Sarris, the quintessential old-school critic whose influence I totally understand but have never really felt. And while I think Pauline Kael had him pegged right as a bit of a "list queen," even his lists now appear positively vibrant compared to the critical brain death that precedes them in this week's Observer:

While I was trying to decide how I would introduce my customary list of the past year’s achievements and non-achievements, I consulted what I wrote last year—and I was struck by how applicable it was to this year. So simply by changing a few numerals, I can repeat last year’s introduction, secure in the knowledge that 2005’s releases were neither appreciably better nor appreciably worse than 2004’s.

Ha ha, Mr. Sarris. Really, though, what can you say about 2005? Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Cache, History of Violence... There are some pretty good, challenging films out--wait. What was that? You were serious?

From the Jan. 10, 2005, New York Observer (via LexisNexis):

As far as I can determine, 2004 seems to be neither the best nor the worst year for movies, at least as far as the proportion of good (low, as always) to bad (high, as always) is concerned. Of course, the technology keeps changing -- often to the consternation of the Luddites among us -- and there's also that mindless nostalgia for an idyllic past, in which all the bad movies have been mercifully expunged from memory. After all, I've been in the year-end 10-best business since 1958, when Jonas Mekas graciously allowed me to share his "Movie Journal" column in The Village Voice with my 10-best list, which I'm now ashamed to remember failed to include both Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. But that was 46 years ago, and I very much doubt that I will be around 46 years from now to second-guess my Top 10 lists for 2004. So with little fear of afterthought and without further ado, here are my considered preferences for the year past(.)

And then this from the current, Jan. 16, 2006, issue:

As far as I can determine, 2005 seems to have been neither the best nor the worst year for movies, at least as far as the proportion of good (low as always) to bad (high as always) is concerned. Of course, the technology keeps changing—often to the consternation of the Luddites among us—and there’s also that mindless nostalgia for an idyllic past, in which all the bad movies have been mercifully expunged from memory. After all, I’ve been in the year-end 10-best business since 1958, when Jonas Mekas graciously allowed me to share his “Movie Journal” column in The Village Voice with my own 10-best list, which I’m now ashamed to remember failed to include both Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil--but that was 48 years ago [sic], and I very much doubt that I will be around 47 years from now to second-guess my top-10 lists for 2005. So, with little fear of afterthought, and without further ado, here are my considered preferences for the past year, which, by my count at least, accounted for 480 releases in New York theaters(.)

Well, at least Sarris was able to cobble that "480 releases" kicker together. But maybe we should give him a break; after all, the guy has been doing this for almost five decades. You try coming up with an original introduction for a piece you have written 50 times. I told you these Top-10 circle jerks could get exhausting.

Posted by stvanairsdale at January 11, 2006 08:03 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mcnblogs.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/741

Comments

Posted by: Student at January 12, 2006 11:50 AM

Posted by: Jason Okamoto at January 12, 2006 09:26 PM

Posted by: JiggaDigga at April 7, 2006 12:52 AM