Whacked

The IFC Daily reports that 80-year-old Andrew Sarris was sent packing from the fading-fast New York Observer yesterday, along with a bunch of other staffers. Is Rex Reed hanging on? A world where Rex Reed has a media home and Sarris doesn't is a grim place to contemplate.

(Update: He's now freelancing for the Observer, along with Reed. Borrowed time I think, minus benefits.)

Stanley Kauffmann: 50 Years at TNR

In 1959, film classics like Anatomy of a Murder and North by Northwest were in release, and Eisenhower was in the White House. And at The New Republic, Stanley Kauffmann assumed the position of film critic. And stayed. And stayed. Kauffmann, now 92, is still going strong, and TNR is celebrating his half-century of scrivening with a special section on its website. It's a nice tribute for that milestone achievement, one virtually impossible to duplicate today as print film criticism withers and morphs to the web; I'm not sure the Chicago Sun-Times will last enough to celebrate Roger Ebert's fiftieth there in a few years. Meanwhile, Andrew Sarris marches on at the New York Observer, but at age 80 he's a mere lad next to Kauffmann.

Video killed the video star

I've always looked at YouTube as a copyright graveyard, but whenever I see something that's truly innovative up there I can be persuaded otherwise. Mindful of myriad problems in our interconnected world the company has taken an ax to the anthill over programming that partakes of copyrighted material, a solution that may not be the best choice where new avenues in film criticism are concerned. That's one example of the clash between creativity and copyright happening beyond the cat videos and comedy sketches my friends tend to send my way, in this unsettled new world.

"Roger's little rule book"

Funny, and advice worth taking. (It's clearly aimed at starstruck Ben Lyons, who has taken over At the Movies and is quoted without attribution throughout, not that I've watched that show in years.) On the other hand, Ebert's own overly effusive praise has cost him as a critic; you rarely see less than a three-star review in his column, that is, if he stuck it out all the way through. The prohibition on trailers is weird: Though I agree that recommending a movie based on its trailer is ridiculous, I'd say they themselves are often boringly put together, but harmless, and a heckuva better than commercials. I wish more of my brethren observed the no-autographs-and-pictures guidelines; it's enormously embarrassing when a so-called "professional" whips out the cellphone camera and blank piece of paper after a roundtable, a ritual that can be humbling enough without the added fawning (worse, some of the mementos, like signed hats and T-shirts, are known to wind up on eBay). In all I'm satisfied that I've met the mending Ebert's standards--then again no one's tested me with a suite in the Bahamas, and in the present chilly climate for working critics and the world economy no one is likely to, either.