Week 2: So Many Critics, So Little Time . . .

One critic whose work I enjoy is Todd VanDerWerff, who writes for the Onion's A.V. Club. I find his observations enlightening in that he has a knack for picking up on underlying emotional themes, something that a show like Girls has quite a bit of. Often, I miss those sorts of things while viewing the first time, and I find it enjoyable to go back in my head and realize what was actually going on in a certain scene or shot. In addition, he picks up on things like, "Shoshanna’s hat, incidentally, is one of the greatest things to happen to America’s sartorial sense in quite some time. I hope everybody starts wearing hats like that." I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment and found Shosh to be even more endearing than usual with that hat on.

Another critic whom I enjoy reading is Germain Lussier of slashfilm.com. He writes clear, concise film reviews, but I often find myself disagreeing with them. I believe that an important of intellectual growth is debate, forcing oneself to understand and appreciate opposing viewpoints, and then reconciling them against his or her own. The linked review of Gangster Squad raises several inconsistencies that I took note of in theaters, but chose to ignore. He's absolutely right that the film struggles to find a balance between serious and comedic, but I didn't perceive this to be as jarring an issue as he made it out to be. I thought the film was fun, exciting, told a unique (and true) story, and deserved more than the 3/10 Germain gave it.

Brooks Barnes of the New York Times has also proven himself to be well worth a read. I'll admit that I am a newer reader of his work than to the critics listed above, but his writing style is engaging and that's often enough to encourage me to read regularly. The article listed above details a film that premiered at this year's Sundance Festival, Escape from Tomorrow, that was shot entirely inside various Disney parks without consent or knowledge from the company. Barnes' description of the film and what it could mean for both the filmmaker and Disney sold me on the movie, and now I'm very curious to watch it and see what all the fuss is about.