Inception

what she said: Monkey See’s Linda Holmes…

2 comments

…on dissenting reviews of critically acclaimed movies (and in particular, Inception) Aggregations of reviews (and the resulting “scores” at a place like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic) are useful as rough approximations of critical reception, but not only is there no reason to prize perfect scores, there is every reason to be suspicious of them. There … more…

question of the day: If it’s okay to worry that ‘Inception’ is too smart, where is the worry about movies that are too stupid?

22 comments

Inception has finally arrived, and now we’ll see if audiences feel the same way about it as critics do: reviews range from pretty good to rapturous, with only a few detractors (and not just Armond White, either!) But I’ve been noticing a particular tenor in the predictions of how audiences may react that I find … more…

question of the day: Are you suspicious when a studio tailors screening access to a film, as has happened with ‘Inception’?

9 comments

We’re all familiar with this kind of situation: A studio has a stinker on its hands, so it frontloads the critical response by showing the film, weeks before it opens, to quote whores, entertainment “journalists” who aren’t critics but get their subsequently rapturous reactions splashed across posters and TV ads anyway. You know, they’re the … more…