Peter Bart: Quentin Tarantino’s Movie About A Film Critic May Be A Parting Shot To A Fading Species
24.03.2023 - 00:35
/ deadline.com
A.O. Scott this week ends his 23-year run as film critic for the New York Times and most movie people are glad to see him go. So is he.
“If the film world is to become relevant again, it needs critics whose work reflects passion and advocacy, and that’s the opposite of Scott,” observes one important filmmaker who fears being quoted.
Besides, he notes, Scott didn’t leave the movies; the movies left Scott.
When cinema was “hot,” a critic like Pauline Kael could stir anger or applause in Hollywood simply by walking into a restaurant. Contentious reviews of movies like Midnight Cowboy or Bonnie & Clyde stirred as much noise as did the movies themselves.
Quentin Tarantino tells friends he’s even making a film titled The Movie Critic about a Kael-like presence. That would likely be the final movie from the filmmaker, who believes that directors should “hang ‘em up” at the age of 60 (his 60th birthday is this month).
So should critics follow suit? Kael’s career almost ended in the late ‘70s when Warren Beatty persuaded her to take a job as a Paramount executive. She shortly quit, finding that she had more influence critiquing movies than creating them.
Kael had a stormy relationship even with her favored filmmakers. Invited by Robert Altman to see a cut of one of his films (Buffalo Bill and the Indians), she became critical at his post-screening dinner. Altman tossed a few choice epithets at the critic, stormed from the restaurant and stuck her with the bill.
Kael would not have thrived in today’s media marketplace where, except for the “tomatoes” they generate, reviews are rarely quoted or even noticed. At the time when Scott joined the Times, that newspaper and others ran ads with lengthy quotes from critics; there was