Editor:
I feel a desire to offer a bit of literary critique on Mr. Myers’ film reviews (“Filmland”). I often find myself frustrated when reading articles and columns if I feel that a significant improvement could be made, and after this week’s reviews of Invictus and The Princess and the Frog, I am finally of a mind to write to someone about it.
I don’t wish to argue with Mr. Myers’ opinions of the movies — I have seen neither — merely the quality of his compositions. In his first review of Invictus, he begins a paragraph by stating that Mr. Eastwood didn’t attempt to draw any parallels with the events of the movie and events in recent politics, and then proceeds to inform the reader that he went ahead and thought of some anyway. In a run-on sentence, I might add. This is a film review, not a political soapbox. If Mr. Myers’ feels the need to draw parallels when the director did not, perhaps he might rephrase his paragraph to state this lost opportunity.
In his second review, Mr. Myers begins with “Desperate times invoke desperate decisions.” I can’t speak for anyone else, but I feel it was phrased in a way that he might not realize just how awesome his job is. If he feels so desperate just because he has to watch a kid’s movie, perhaps he should give up his post reviewing films for the Journal. I can think of at least one person who would be happy to take up the mantle.
Grace Loucks, Arcata
This article appears in Top Ten Stories of 2009.
Film is an art form. Some films are simply entertaining, and some films have messages. All films, in one way or another, are products of the culture in which they were created. No film is made in a vacuum, and it is perfectly acceptable for a critic to draw parallels to real-life social and political situations even if the film didn’t do that.
I’m also a film critic (for Filmthreat.com — one of the top five movie sites according to the "Wall Street Journal" — and for various magazines). I have to deal you, it can be awesome, but it also can be trying and taxing.
Good letter, but it seems like you, too, may have missed the point.