Description
Book SynopsisOver the past decade, as digital media has expanded and print outlets have declined, pundits have bemoaned a “crisis of criticism” and mourned the “death of the critic”. In
Film Criticism in the Digital Age, ten scholars from across the globe come together to consider whether we are witnessing the extinction of serious film criticism or seeing the start of its rebirth in a new form.
Trade Review"This is a great and highly important volume for film studies as a discipline and cultural and media studies more generally." -- Dana Polan * New York University *
"Frey and Sayad assemble both academic and popular analyses on the dearth – perhaps death – of the working film critic, caught up and rubbed out in the brave new World Wide Web of bottomless blogs and 14-character tweets. Refusing a simplistic 'thumbs up/thumbs down' approach, this useful if fitful anthology merits several stars." * Journal of Film and Video *
"Offers such distinguished critics as Armond White and Nick James a chance to weight in on the need for informed, responsible film criticism in the digital era… Highly recommended." * Choice *
"Frey and Sayad assemble both academic and popular analyses on the dearth – perhaps death – of the working film critic, caught up and rubbed out in the brave new World Wide Web of bottomless blogs and 14-character tweets. Refusing a simplistic 'thumbs up/thumbs down' approach, this useful if fitful anthology merits several stars." * Journal of Film and Video *
"This is a great and highly important volume for film studies as a discipline and cultural and media studies more generally." -- Dana Polan * New York University *
"Offers such distinguished critics as Armond White and Nick James a chance to weight in on the need for informed, responsible film criticism in the digital era… Highly recommended." * Choice *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Part I: The Critic and the Audience
Chapter 1. Thumbs in the Crowd: Artists and Audiences in the Post-Vanguard WorldChapter 2: Critics Through Authors: Dialogues, Similarities, and the Sense of a CrisisChapter 3. “The Last Honest Film Critic in America”: Armond White and the Children of James Baldwin Part II: New Forms and Activities
Chapter 4. The New Democracy? Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Twitter, and IMDbChapter 5. The Price of Conservation: Online Video Criticism of Film in ItalyChapter 6. Before and After AfterEllen: Online Queer Cinephile Communities as Critical CounterpublicsChapter 7. Elevating the “Amateur”: NollywoodCritics and the Politics of Diasporic Film Criticism Part III: Institutions and the Profession
Chapter 8. American Nationwide Associations of Film Critics in the Internet EraChapter 9. Finnish Film Critics and the Uncertainties of the Profession in the Digital AgeChapter 10. The Social Function of Criticism; or, Why Does the Cinema Have (to Have) a Soul? Part IV: Critics Speak
Chapter 11. The Critic Is Dead . . .Chapter 12. What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About MoviesChapter 13. Who Needs Critics?Chapter 14. Excerpts from Cineaste’s “Film Criticism in the Age of the Internet: A Critical Symposium” AfterwordSelected BibliographyNotes on ContributorsIndex
