Film Criticism, Speaking Of

Sure I read Anthony Lane. And yeah James Bowman is my favorite -- tho he likes not much. And I do regret ever calling her the Erma Bombeck of movie reviewers way back when, but yeah, I still read Pauline Kael, still read her alot may she rest in peace. And hate to admit it but I do read chump Ebert, may he rot in hell the sooner the better. And I've read Podhoretz for years without seeking him out -- yet in Thinking on Film (if you hit the link you'll have to scroll down, don't know why they won't fix that) Podhoretz says it all this week:

Film criticism requires nothing but an interesting sensibility. The more self-consciously educated one is in the field--by which I mean the more obscure the storehouse of cinematic knowledge a critic has--the less likely it is that one will have anything interesting to say to an ordinary person who isn't all that interested in the condition of Finnish cinema. Amateurism in the best sense will lead to some very interesting work by people whose primary motivation is simply to express themselves in relation to the work they're seeing--a purer critical impulse than the one that comes with collecting a paycheck along the way.

John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary, is THE WEEKLY STANDARD's (paid) movie critic.