Thanks to Ed for forwarding the last column by our pal Jack Matthews, who signs off his decades-long column to “write books and enjoy the view”:
When I began reviewing and seeing everything, I was warned by a veteran critic that for every movie that would inspire me, nine would drain my soul. I thought, “He just doesn’t like movies as much as I do.”
Some 6,000 screenings later, I’d say he had the ratio about right. But those exceptions – that “Pulp Fiction,” that “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that “No Country for Old Men” – kept my glass half-full and the passion alive.
That passion has been with me since I was younger than those kids in Detroit, and I get as excited by movies now as then. But as I return to civilian filmgoing, I will be counting on other critics to do for me what I’ve tried to do for you: cut through the hype and publicity and tell me which films are actually worth seeing.
Hell yeah! This post sounds really good. Reading your blog is useful and interesting. Keep it that way.
Hate to be a critic (no pun intended), but it’s Mathews with one T. 🙂
The NY Daily News — my newspaper! He’ll be very much missed. Great reviewer with wonderful insight.
Matthews was a passionate and fair-minded critic. He didn’t possess the critical acumen and literary gifts that some of America’s best critics have showcased for years….ie. Kael, Kauffmann, Simon, Hoberman, Sarris et al, but you always were given a straitforward and unfettered assessment. At the News, he will surely be missed.