Evidence of Sanity

Assessing Art is difficult always, but it is particularly hard in the online film world right now. It is seemingly impossible to find your own voice and your own opinion. Everyone is writing about the same thing in the same way. Not to say it is entirely fruitless, right now is none-the-less one of the few times in the year when mainstream critics step back from individual films and look at the big picture. Yet, a consensus is easily formed (this year it's The Social Network) and even though that sort of thing is questioned, its always done in the same way.

Most critics are unwilling to adapt but one who is certainly not is Matt Zoller Seitz. He is one of the founders of the excellent and influential film blog The House Next Door and continues to write for Salon.com and the New York Times, among others. He is perhaps best known as one of the pioneers of new media in film criticism. What he has done with slide shows and short videos to both augment the usual review and create new ways of looking at films is refreshing. In this particular instance though, I was impressed by what he said in plain old print media about how two films changed his perceptions this year. The article stands head and shoulders above all criticism I've read in the past few months. And it can be read HERE.