As they say "everyone is a star." And also in this media-saturated world, everyone is a critic too. We are all so pop-culturally smart. We all know film, we all know music. Your grandma can talk about the great tracking shot that unfolds in the beginning of "Raging Bull," and your local Barista can engage you in an enlightening conversation about Black Death Metal bands from Denmark.
As the Telepaths front-man and my good friend, Uber Critic tells me, being a professional movie critic is like being an endangered species. What with the internet, and all that freaking social media, it means everyone has a platform to broadcast their opinions. And everyone, but everyone has an opinion. And they can't wait to hit you over the head with it. And if everyone is a critic, then well, it's a task just figuring out who is worth listening to, or reading.
And how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? You have to listen to people you trust. An example: Anthony Lane of the New Yorker once tipped me off to the great Wes Anderson flick called "Rushmore," and I have been forever in his debt. So yes, I give an ear or an eye to Lane's reviews of movies. He's a funny guy too. So even when I don't agree with him, I do enjoy reading his take on movies.
I also personally know Pat McDonald, the Uber Critic at Hollywood Chicago. We write songs for the Telepaths together, and have discussed movies, music, pop culture and politics. He often surprises me. He's funny, intelligent and he takes to the task of reviewing movies very seriously. Like it's a calling. Sort like a priest-hood or something. And I do think he deserves a medal or something for wading through movies that I go out of my way to avoid.
So I usually check out his year end list of "best movies" of the year, because I know he's seen just about everything. I haven't seen most of these, the only one I saw was "Tree of Life," and I'm not sure if it's great or not so great. I'm kind of ambivalent about it.
But I know I will check some of these out when they make it to DVD... here's Uber's 2011 list!
And then there's Terry Flamm who has a wonderful music blog called Broken Hearted Toy. Terry is a founding member of the great Famous in the Future comedy group. Terry is funny, (one of the great Chicago comedians), kind, intelligent, and he knows music. We've had some great conversations over the years. He specializes in "Power Pop, Garage Rock, 1960's Pop and Cutting Edge Music." I know he loves the Hollies!
Terry is my favorite kind of "critic." He usually writes about music and bands he loves, and he'd like you to know and love them too. Or at least give them a listen. Music is such an expansive landscape, I check out Terry's list of best music of 2011 and realize I don't know any of these bands. But really all that means is that Terry has listened to lots more music than I. I'm sure I'll check some of these discs out! Dum Dum Girls!
I'm one of those Critics that believe pop culture transcends time and space. Past, present and future co-exist. So my "best of 2011" is really lame. My favorites discs of the year were "old discs" I discovered in 2011: Moby's "Play" ( 1999), Radiohead's "In Rainbows" (2008), The National's "The Boxer" (2007), Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" (2006), Big Star's "Sister Lovers" (1978), The Flaming Lips "Embryonic" (2009) and Robert Plant & Jimmy Pages "No Quarter" (1994) - yes really! UnLedded!
Oh yeah I did really enjoy these 2011 releases too: Ryan Adams "Ashes and Fire," Tom Waits "Bad As Me," Wye Oak's, "Civilian," Wilco's "The Whole Love," and Deer Tick's "Divine Providence." Were they the best of the year? Beats me. Check back later in the decade! Maybe I'll discover something "old!"