Word: bart
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That's one explanation for last month's jeremiad by Peter Bart, editor of the trade paper Variety, against movie reviewers. He couldn't understand why so many critics lambasted hits like 300, Wild Hogs and Norbit. "The situation underscores yet again the disconnect between the cinematic appetites of critics vs. those of the popcorn crowd," Bart wrote. "If the established media want to stay relevant, should their critics make a passing attempt to tune in to pop culture?" He suggested we take "a sabbatical until September," when Hollywood starts releasing artsy films in the pre-Oscar blitz...
...Bart, who once was a Paramount Pictures executive, and to other Hollywood sachems, the ascent of the fanboy critics must be like manna falling from above. They rose from the culture they speak to, they're as obsessed with horror films and special effects as the industry currently is, and they love nearly everything they see. Whereas the mainstream critics--they're so damn critical...
Implicit in Bart's argument is that a popular film is a good film, and vice versa. If critics can't validate that tautology, we're useless. That's why studios screen fewer and fewer of their films early, and if they do, they invite everyone but critics. Until the fall, that is, when they want their prestige releases on 10 Best lists. Those citations sell tickets and tip off the awards folks. In that sense, Hollywood uses us as heralds to our own constituency. We're the fanboy brigade for Oscar films...
...Jesus Dynasty by James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who also aided Jacobovici, enmeshes a plausible story of early church strife in speculative material suggesting that Jesus had a human father and hoped for an earthly kingship. Professors and best-selling authors Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman both have books out claiming to derive new insights from the rediscovered Gnostic Gospel of Judas--itself a best seller. Their logic is solid, but their topic is daring...
...Which is why seeing them on a museum wall is, as Bart Simpson would say, funny in so many ways...