A not-terribly-critical view of the Film Criticism Blog-a-Thon: thumbs up with four stars!

Zowie! Andy Horbal’s No More Marriages! Film Criticism Blog-a-Thon that went on this weekend – all this weekend – has been a blockbustery success, with close to 40 entries from writers big, small, new, old and everything in between.

And one thing that is now clearer to me than it was before – and really, it was pretty clear before – I am absolutely one of the most lowbrow film “critics” that I’ve ever read. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that so many of these posts sent me scrambling to Wikipedia to understand certain references either means that everyone else is an elitist or that I should really give in finally and embrace my inner Michael Adam Bay Sandler.

Anyway, here are a handful of the ‘Thon submissions that spoke more directly to me and my own little corner of moviedorkdom:

• Andy’s own submission to the Blog-a-Thon he so successfully manhandled – As a Preface: Andy’s Letters to the “Young Turks” 3:1 (Or something) – is a terrific blending of film criticism analysis with the idea of doing so on the Internet, and even comes complete with examples. Andy’s got a terrific sense of the bloguverse community and really shows it here.
• That Little Round-Headed Boy trolls the depths of YouTube to find a handful of film criticism-related gems featuring Mel Brooks, Siskel and Ebert (and Sparky!), Rex Reed and more.
• Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule provides five pivotal events in his own personal history as a film critic, and they’re all delightfully realized, compelling reading for film fans. And the fact that his post includes a picture of at least one exploding body is a big plus in my book (see: reference to lowbrow proclivities, above).
• Last Night with Riviera offers up an excellent top-10 list of intriguing things to keep in mind when watching and critiquing a film. Years ago, I had a personal revelation along the lines of his first tip – Every film is a masterpiece – when I was compelled to see a cast-and-crew screening of a horribly campy sci-fi movie starring Brigitte Nielsen, Richard Moll and Sam Raimi (!). I was, naturally, tempted to write off the experience as fairly ridiculous, but was humbled following the movie when I realized how excited and proud the crew was at having completed it. They knew they hadn’t made Schindler’s List, but their movie was complete and they were gratefully cognizant of what a hell of an accomplishment that is on its own in Hollywood.
• And finally, two posts to the Blog-a-Thon that capture a personal guideline of mine that has informed the movies I’ve ended up enjoying the most over the years: the Scanners blog by Jim Emerson and Flickhead both espouse the idea of NOT reading reviews and of LIMITING EXPOSURE to publicity materials before one goes to the movies anymore.

I can’t tell you what a huge fan I am of this concept, and if you visit Burbanked with any regularity then you already know this. We see, read, consume, write, snark, rumormonger and otherwise spoil way, way too much of the movies for ourselves anymore, and by the time we’re planted in our seats and the lights are going down, films have ceased to be the special, transporting experiences that they’re meant to be – and that’s if we even make it out to the theater in the first place.

Wow. Lots of compelling film critic-centric reading to be found over at No More Marriages, and if you start linking deeper within the posts, you’ll likely look up, several days later, and realize you’ve blacked out on the mother of all cinephiliac benders.

And really, that’s not such a bad thing, right?