criticism news roundup

Bennett Marcus at New York’s blog Vulture discovers that director James Toback’s is planning “revenge on nasty film critics.”

Graphic novel writer and critic Jamie S. Rich talks about the current state of film criticism at the blog Talking with Tim, and specifically takes year-end listmakers to task.

A selection of the tributes to critic and filmmaker Eric Rohmer, who died last week at 89:

Glenn Kenny in the Los Angeles Times praises Rohmer as an art-house intellectual to the end, whose “work is strewn with... gorgeously felicitous touches.”

Richard Corliss in Time hails Rohmer for revolutionizing criticism, deeming him “a master painter... of fond character studies.”

The obit writers of The Washington Post call Rohmer’s films “long, philosophical conversations” that adhered to his “personal vision: to make films portraying the inner lives of characters without adding extraneous drama.”