MEDIA AFFILIATION
Bill at Rotten Tomatoes
Showing posts with label member profiles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label member profiles. Show all posts
January 01, 2000
Erik Childress
MEDIA AFFILIATION
eFilmCritic
Cinematical
Erik at Rotten Tomatoes
LOCATION
Chicago, IL
ABOUT ERIK
Erik Childress got his start as a film critic on the Jonathon Brandmeier show back in 1998 and has been at eFilmCritic.com since 2000, where he writes regular weekly reviews and the yearly Criticwatch column. He also writes regular features for Cinematical as their awards expert and has been a contributor to Magill's Cinema Annual since 2009. He is a weekly guest with Nick Digilio on Chicago’s WGN Radio (720 AM) and is currently the Vice President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.
FAVORITES
Directors: Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Edgar Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson, The Coen Bros., James L. Brooks, James Cameron, Alexander Payne, Joe Dante, Cameron Crowe
Films: Back to the Future, E.T., JFK, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Aliens, The Prestige, Broadcast News, His Girl Friday, The Right Stuff, Once Upon A Time In The West, GoodFellas, Rear Window, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Dr. Strangelove, Blade Runner, The Empire Strikes Back, Field of Dreams, Saving Private Ryan, The Untouchables
Cole Smithey
MEDIA AFFILIATION
ColeSmithey.com
Film Slate Magazine
Kidsville News
Lansing City Pulse
Monterey County Weekly
Shalom Life
Vegas Seven
LOCATION
Manhattan, New York
ABOUT COLE
Cole Smithey began writing reviews for The Independent in Raleigh, North Carolina, The Colorado Springs Independent, and the Tacoma Reporter in Washington in 1997. He branched out into other alternative weekly newspapers across the United States and various national and international magazines, including CMQ, Unleashed, The Local Mag, The Jewish Magazine, and CT Slant, as well as websites such as DailyRadar.com.
His weekly film review video series "Cole Smithey's Movie Week, the movie review show for smart people," has appeared on the websites of The Star-Press in Muncie, Indiana, as well as AOL Television and USA Today. It currently appears on Shalomlife.com and LansingCityPulse.com, as well as on ColeSmithey.com.
Cole Smithey is the Staff Film Editor for Kidsville News, a website and national newspaper print supplement with a circulation of 1.4 million.
FAVORITES
Cole's favorite films include Bernardo Bertolucci's "1900," Elem Klimov's "Come and See," and Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole."
Joe Lozito
MEDIA AFFILIATION
Big Picture Big Sound
Joe at Rotten Tomatoes
LOCATION
New York, NY
ABOUT JOE
A member of the exclusive Online Film Critics Society, Big Picture Big Sound co-founder Joe Lozito has been a fan and critic of movies since a very early age. At the age of 10, he was keeping his movie ticket stubs in a photo album with what would later be called "capsule reviews" written underneath. Why he was seeing so many movies at that age is better left to the therapist's couch.
At around the same age he was also making his first appearances in front of the camera in mini-home movies made with the help of his Dad's video camera. His favorite is probably his own take on the "Greatest American Hero" TV series, complete with a homemade suit, stunt dummy and stop-motion special effects. This mini-Spielberg also received rave reviews for two "Joey Larson" shows (Johnny Carson spoofs featuring members of his family as guests). While those tapes are rare, they do still exist. But don't bother asking to see them. You will never.
As Joe became more of an authority (in his own mind anyway) on film, he made the transition to online movie review publishing in 1998 in the form of joelozito.com. In 2005, that archive of material put the "Big Picture" in Big Picture Big Sound. Joe is also a frequent contributor to YesButNoButYes. Most recently (2007), Joe was inducted into the prestigious Online Film Critics Society in recognition of the quality (and quantity!) of insightful film reviews and editorials Joe has written over the years.
Joe has also dabbled in music and acting in New York City and has, like most critics, a screenplay or two in his back pocket. When he's not staring at a screen in a darkened room, Joe enjoys playing guitar, karate, golf and scuba diving. However, he mostly watches movies. Mostly.
FAVORITES
The Godfather (1972), Casablanca (1942), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Star Wars (1977,) Jaws (1975)
Marilyn Ferdinand
MEDIA AFFILIATION
Ferdy on Films
LOCATION
Chicago, IL
ABOUT MARILYN
After spending my youth consuming as much theatre and opera as I could stand, when I turned 40, I suddenly, and much to my surprise, became utterly obsessed with cinema. This is both a blessing and a curse in a city like Chicago, where the film resources are so plentiful, it can drive a film buff to bankruptcy and despair at trying to keep up with it all. Starting my blog was my way of sharing my cornucopia of film opportunities with people from other places whose choices were more limited. Partnering up with Australian writer Rod Heath gives Ferdy on Films the benefit of our varied film interests and points of view. I tend to be an activist who favors documentaries, particularly those with social relevance; “offroad” films from emerging national cinemas (I cover film festivals regularly); silent films; experimental films; and works by female directors. I often look at films from a feminist and political point of view.
FAVORITES
• Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, U.S.A., the greatest American documentary ever made
• Joseph H. Lewis’ Gun Crazy, my favorite noir (Peggy Cummins is my avatar on Ferdy on Films)
• Valley Girl, because Martha Coolidge really knows that teenage girls fantasize about being in a Romeo and Juliet romance, with a happier outcome
• Luis Buñuel and Stanley Kubrick, the latter for the grand scale of his style and preoccupations, the former for just the opposite—his concentration on the pettiness of humanity and its inner obsessions
• Ken Russell, for his extravagance of vision and fearlessness
• Melvin Van Peebles, for his individuality, pride, freshness, and influence
• Balkan cinema, whose perverse black humor and sad history appeal to me greatly
• Czech cinema, which is not only extremely witty, but also the most visually beautiful in the world
Ferdy on Films
LOCATION
Chicago, IL
ABOUT MARILYN
After spending my youth consuming as much theatre and opera as I could stand, when I turned 40, I suddenly, and much to my surprise, became utterly obsessed with cinema. This is both a blessing and a curse in a city like Chicago, where the film resources are so plentiful, it can drive a film buff to bankruptcy and despair at trying to keep up with it all. Starting my blog was my way of sharing my cornucopia of film opportunities with people from other places whose choices were more limited. Partnering up with Australian writer Rod Heath gives Ferdy on Films the benefit of our varied film interests and points of view. I tend to be an activist who favors documentaries, particularly those with social relevance; “offroad” films from emerging national cinemas (I cover film festivals regularly); silent films; experimental films; and works by female directors. I often look at films from a feminist and political point of view.
FAVORITES
• Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, U.S.A., the greatest American documentary ever made
• Joseph H. Lewis’ Gun Crazy, my favorite noir (Peggy Cummins is my avatar on Ferdy on Films)
• Valley Girl, because Martha Coolidge really knows that teenage girls fantasize about being in a Romeo and Juliet romance, with a happier outcome
• Luis Buñuel and Stanley Kubrick, the latter for the grand scale of his style and preoccupations, the former for just the opposite—his concentration on the pettiness of humanity and its inner obsessions
• Ken Russell, for his extravagance of vision and fearlessness
• Melvin Van Peebles, for his individuality, pride, freshness, and influence
• Balkan cinema, whose perverse black humor and sad history appeal to me greatly
• Czech cinema, which is not only extremely witty, but also the most visually beautiful in the world
Blake French
MEDIA AFFILIATION
AMC's FilmCritic.com
Blake at Rotten Tomatoes
LOCATION
Miami
ABOUT BLAKE
Blake landed his first book deal in 2009, working with Hungry City Guides on the Las Vegas restaurant and bar guide Hungry? Thirsty? Las Vegas: The Lowdown on Where the Real People Eat and Drink. Currently, he's working as editor of Barcode Magazine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In the past, he's worked with 944 Magazine, L.A. Alternative Press, 9ine Magazine, Lansing City Pulse, Laguna Beach Independent, OC Drinks! Magazine, and Backstage West. Right now, he lives in Miami Beach, Florida.
Tim Brayton
MEDIA AFFILIATION
Antagony & Ecstasy
Tim at Rotten Tomatoes
LOCATION
Chicago, IL
ABOUT TIM
Tim Brayton got into film criticism by accident: a year after graduating from the film program at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, he still hadn't done anything remotely associated with his degree, and decided to start up a blog, just for the fun of it. Film criticism wasn't even the focus, for the first couple of months.
Five years, and over a thousand reviews later, it's obviously become more than "just for the fun of it". But at heart, Brayton is still just a simple film blogger, who enjoys the purity and casualness that comes from writing on his terms, and nobody else's. At least, this is what he tells people when they ask why he still hasn't made any money doing it.
FAVORITES
A genre for each decade:
-German Expressionism in the 1920s
-Hollywood romantic comedy in the 1930s
-Hollywood romantic melodrama in the 1940s
-Film noir in the 1950s
-Glacial European art films in the 1960s
-Italian horror in the 1970s
-American horror in the 1980s
-Animation in the 1990s
-Indies in the '00s
Antagony & Ecstasy
Tim at Rotten Tomatoes
LOCATION
Chicago, IL
ABOUT TIM
Tim Brayton got into film criticism by accident: a year after graduating from the film program at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, he still hadn't done anything remotely associated with his degree, and decided to start up a blog, just for the fun of it. Film criticism wasn't even the focus, for the first couple of months.
Five years, and over a thousand reviews later, it's obviously become more than "just for the fun of it". But at heart, Brayton is still just a simple film blogger, who enjoys the purity and casualness that comes from writing on his terms, and nobody else's. At least, this is what he tells people when they ask why he still hasn't made any money doing it.
FAVORITES
A genre for each decade:
-German Expressionism in the 1920s
-Hollywood romantic comedy in the 1930s
-Hollywood romantic melodrama in the 1940s
-Film noir in the 1950s
-Glacial European art films in the 1960s
-Italian horror in the 1970s
-American horror in the 1980s
-Animation in the 1990s
-Indies in the '00s
Andrew Schenker
MEDIA AFFILIATION
Slant Magazine
The Cine File
The Village Voice
Artforum online
The L Magazine
Time Out New York
Andrew at Rotten Tomatoes
LOCATION
New York, NY
ABOUT ANDREW
A New-York based film writer, Andrew Schenker is a staff critic for Slant Magazine and also contributes regularly to the Village Voice, Artforum online, The L Magazine and Time Out New York.
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