1. Where’s your byline?
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, arkansasonline.com, strangepup.blogspot.com
2. Education:
BA, Louisiana State University; JD, LSU.
3. Film education:
largely autodidactic; read widely and saw lots of films ... also I occasionally teach which provides me with a reason to read and look at movies.
4. Indispensable film books:
Agee On Film
5. Favorite film magazines and/or websites:
imdb, rotten tomatoes, Film Comment
6. Describe a typical work week:
I also write extensively about all manner of pop culture and American society; I do a Sunday Perspective column as well as a Tuesday Critical Mass essay, two or three reviews of opening films and an On Film column on Friday. I go into the office in the mornings when I don't have screenings to pick up mail and chat, write in the afternoon and generally watch films at night. In between I try to have a life.
7. How many movies did you review in 2006?
Haven't counted, but probably between 100-150.
8. What do you take with you to a screening?
My wife Karen, who's also our MovieStyle editor.
9. Movie you lambasted that then got you lambasted, & have you since backpedaled?
I didn't care much for Alex Payne's About Schmidt
10. To what extent do you believe home theatres will make movie theatres obsolete?
I hope there's always a place where we can go and sit in the dark with strangers and watch colored light dancing on the wall. But personally I love DVDs and think that it's a good thing that you can watch the The Battle of Algiers
11. Advice for hitting a film fest; What are your objectives?
Usually I'm going to review films, though I try to see a few simply for my own pleasure. Since we have a very vital movie culture here, even those small films often show up here eventually.
12. Most over/under-rated film fest and why:
Austin's SXSW -- because it's so easy to negotiate and Austin is such a cool city.
13. What fests did you attend in 2006,
Toronto, SXSW, Indie Memphis, Hot Springs Documentary Film Fest, Tribeca, The Ozark Foothills FilmFest (and we usually send a correspondent to Sundance, it's too cold for me)
and which would you like to attend in 2007?
We'll go back to all of the above, and we'll probably add another. But not Palm Springs -- though we used to go there every year.
14. How do you fuel yourself during a hectic fest schedule?
We generally see films all day then give ourselves the evenings off. I ate bagels and pieces of bread and drink coffee and water. No stopping for lunch or anything, and very little downtime.
15. Your ideal film fest theme:
I don't understand the question. Since I'm working, I'm simply trying to see films that will open in our market; I wish I had time to see an Altman retrospective or something but that's really not how it works.
16. What do you consider the most prestigious non-Oscar film award?
I'm almost completely uninterested in all awards, including the Oscars and don't think it's a critic's job to handicap these sort of things. I do pay slight attention to what wins at Cannes, however.
17. Movies/genres you can discuss better than anyone else:
As a former athlete, I'm a dreadful bore on sports films. I like French cinema a lot, and the sub-Hughes teensploitation films of the 1980s.
18. If you were locked in a theatre with the work of three directors...
John Ford, Preston Sturges and Spike Lee
19. How often do you watch movies that you aren’t critiquing?
Daily.
20. Three favorite sick-in-bed/easy-on-the-head movies:
Animal House
21. Surprising turn from one of your least favorite actors/directors:
Macauley Culkin in Party Monster
22. Three essential movies for a proper film-snob library:
What everybody says: The Searchers
23. How did you become a film critic?
It's a long story -- I was a shortstop, then a sports editor, then a cop reporter, then a newspaper columnist, then a managing editor in charge of a small chain of newspapers, then the executive editor of an alternative newspaper, then an investigative reporter for New Times, then a newspaper columnist again. About 20 years ago I started reviewing occasionally, and now it's probably 60 percent of my job.
24. Career moment you’re most proud of:
I like my own books – The Shortstop's Son
