1. Where’s your byline?
Las Vegas Weekly, signalbleed.blogspot.com, Area 108 FM
2. Education:
Bachelor's degree in English from Amherst College
3. Film education:
A few film classes at Amherst; a lifetime of watching movies; some only mildly embarrassing high-school experiments in the camcorder-short-film arts.
4. Indispensable film books:
I spend more time reading about movies online than in books, admittedly, although I have to give respect to Tony Macklin's Voices from the Set
5. Favorite film magazines and/or websites:
Slant Magazine, The House Next Door, Movies Into Film,The AV Club, Rotten Tomatoes
6. Describe a typical work week:
I'm also the copy editor for Las Vegas Weekly, so I typically spend my Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays working mostly on that, catching screenings at night or in mornings if I can swing it. Thursdays and Fridays are for more screenings and screeners (I'm a TV critic as well) and writing, which almost always spills over into the weekend. Lather, rinse, repeat.
7. How many movies did you review in 2006?
About 75 at this point for the Weekly, with more informally on my blog and on the radio.
8. What do you take with you to a screening?
My wits, if I'm lucky, and a guest if I can find one (you'd think people would get more excited at the prospect of free movies). I'm not a note-taker and never have been, even in school, which usually isn't a problem unless I need to write a review of something I saw months earlier.
9. Movie you lambasted that then got you lambasted, & have you since backpedaled?
I got a lot of heat for writing a rather mildly negative review of Million Dollar Baby
10. To what extent do you believe home theatres will make movie theatres obsolete?
I don't think movie theaters will ever completely go away, at least not in major cities and for major cinephiles as well as big event movies, but I do think that home viewing will be the dominant paradigm within the next decade or so.
11. Advice for hitting a film fest; What are your objectives?
I have this anxiety about not seeing enough films or not seeing the right ones, so I tend to cram as much as possible into my days and end up getting burnt out. For people who are hitting fests just for fun, it's probably best to pace yourself and sacrifice that fifth screening of the day in order to get some food and some sleep and be coherent enough to actually appreciate the films you see the following day.
12. Most over/under-rated film fest and why:
I don't think I've been to enough fests to answer this.
13. What fests did you attend in 2006, and which would you like to attend in 2007?
At this point, I only have the chance to go to local film festivals, including CineVegas (the most high-profile Vegas fest) and smaller events like the Dam Short Film Festival, NeonFest, the Las Vegas Celebration of Jewish Film and the Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and the Supernatural. I'd love to attend big festivals like Sundance, or Toronto or Cannes, but that's not really within the Weekly's budget (or priorities) at the moment.
14. How do you fuel yourself during a hectic fest schedule?
Eating poorly and quickly, which is bad, but I am anti-social so I tend to skip all parties and networking events and thus at least end up getting enough sleep.
15. Your ideal film fest theme:
Any event that exposes the audience to new and daring works that they wouldn't otherwise see is great, but after attending (and judging) the abysmal aforementioned Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and the Supernatural, I'd love to see a serious genre film festival with movies made with the same care and ambition as those in mainstream festivals.
16. What do you consider the most prestigious non-Oscar film award?
Prestige is a relative concept, but I always pay attention to whatever wins the Palme D'or at Cannes.
17. Movies/genres you can discuss better than anyone else:
This is sort of shameful, but probably frivolous teen movies. I always seem to be the one reviewing the latest Hilary Duff or Lindsay Lohan vehicle.
18. If you were locked in a theatre with the work of three directors...
Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, Joel & Ethan Coen
19. How often do you watch movies that you aren’t critiquing?
As often as possible.
20. Three favorite sick-in-bed/easy-on-the-head movies:
Wayne's World
21. Surprising turn from one of your least favorite actors/directors:
I had a sort of off-handed disdain for Charlie Kaufman until Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
22. Three essential movies for a proper film-snob library:
If you're a true film snob, these will be three masterpieces that I have probably never heard of, because you are better than me.
23. How did you become a film critic?
I started out as an intern at the Weekly, and when they needed a movie reviewed, I simply asked if I could do it. I kept persisting at that until I was the de facto critic for the paper, although I still do many other things and we have a number of other writers who review movies along with me.
24. Career moment you’re most proud of:
Perversely, getting an incredibly obscene and grossly unprofessional email from the producer of two movies that I had panned at CineVegas. My happiest moment was seeing his movies take almost two years to find distribution, with one making virtually nothing at the box office and the other going straight to video. He hasn't made a movie since.