Rosenbaum

Jonathan Rosenbaum, the great longtime film critic and author, is retiring in February from the Chicago Reader.  If you want to get a glimpse of his appeal, the Coen bros' No Country for Old Men was uniformly praised by every critic across the land, but Rosenbaum alone gave it one star. (But in a way that makes you think hard about what you just saw). His personal 1,000 film "film canon" only confirms he really has seen almost everything.  How one city produced a generation of movie critics like Roger Ebert, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Gene Siskel is a rarity that surely will not be equaled again.  I am dying to read Dead Man. 

Comments

[avant/chi]

Well the Reader is now part of a much larger media group, so they may not be room for him. Also Deadman is one of BEST movies ever - but I've never read the book. I would love to read it.

[joshi]

ebert and siskel GREAT movie critics? you toss that word around lightly ..

bogdanovich was a great critic - and he went on to make great movies.

ebert and siskel are strict lightweights, amusing as they are.

[Bryant Manning]

they *are* great movie critics, and influential too. ebert's even a cult screenwriter, and johnny rotten of the sex pistols sought him out to write his band's big bio epic, "who killed bambi."

even alex ross has said roger ebert is his favorite critic working in any medium. and roger does important work with his "overlooked film festival." his and gene's show was the first of its kind.

that said, they are a different type of critic than say a pauline kael, andrew sarris, david denby, or an anthony lane.

S&E write for dailies, for starters.

[ab]

Roger always seemed fine to me, even set aside his argument with Lynch to say about Mulholland Drive, "This movie works."

Also, since I'm late to a prior post, I think a download site with the classical catalog would be great, but I don't see how the music could ever catch on in a very big way. That's because 1) you don't dance at their concerts, and 2) the orchestra doesn't (usually) put on a show, i.e., no make-up or explosions on stage. And I don't mean to insult pop music culture, but the bigger draws have to do more than just play their instruments.

And lastly, in my close listening of the Beatles' catalog, I'm on song #3, 'Please, Please Me'. Always subliminally noticed that John flubbed a word in the last verse ('I know "I" never even try'), but George also had a little trouble with the descending riff coming out of the bridge, he plays E,D#,B,C#, inverting the last two notes (so it sounds to me). And it's still a perfect record that isn't on the '1' album, i.e., never hit #1 in the US.

[Brian]

Did we make an attempt to play that one, way back? It almost seems like we did. Oh, and "2 thumbs up" for S&E from my perspective. The fact that we all know their names, speaks volumes.

Brian

[ab]

Think the 2 of us, but don't recall that the 4 of us did.

About song #4, 'Ask Me Why', I think in the later years whenever John complained about Paul's 'granny' songs, Paul should have responded with "I love you- woo-woo-woo-woo-woo".

[ab]

Think the 2 of us, but don't recall that the 4 of us did.

About song #4, 'Ask Me Why', I think in the later years whenever John complained about Paul's 'granny' songs, Paul should have responded with "I love you- woo-woo-woo-woo-woo".

[Brian]

"Time it was and what a time it was, it was, a time of" incense, I mean "innocence". I forgive both of them, somewhere along the way we all grew up a bit too much maybe. Some things should just exist because they are fun, but I do think what you suggest would have worked brilliantly for Paul. So, we should probably take this discussion to personal email, and not muck up Bryant's blog, but I need to know what list you are working off of?

Brian

[ab]

Right. To get back on topic, Bryant, my curiosity about 'Dead Man' is appropriately piqued.