Live From SXSW's Screening Room
By Kimberley Jones, Fri., March 14, 2003
"WRITE OR WRONG: A LOOK AT FILM JOURNALISM"
With Dana Harris (Variety), Ann Hornaday (The Washington Post), Joe Leydon (The San Francisco Examiner, Variety), Elvis Mitchell (The New York Times), Chris Nashawaty (Entertainment Weekly), and Robert Wilonsky (The Dallas Observer); moderated by Chris Gore (Film Threat)Sunday, March 9, 11am-12:30pm @ Austin Convention Center At the peace-loving hour of 11am on a Sunday morn, a handful of the premier American voices in film criticism and film journalism gathered to ... devolve in minutes' time to full-on WWF smackdown mode, inspired by moderator and Film Threat founder Chris Gore's exceedingly, um, feisty opening remarks. Among Gore's many targets were Harry Knowles, press junkets ("I will not be led by the studios"), and fellow media outlets, which included accusing panelmate Chris Nashawaty's publication, Entertainment Weekly, of regularly stealing ideas off of Film Threat. The panel -- and the audience -- reacted with nothing short of flabbergast, Dallas Observer writer and editor Robert Wilonsky cheekily asked if he could be dismissed, and renowned New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell ducked under the table -- count it! -- no less than three times. Eventually, Gore clammed up, and the panel settled into an engaging discussion that ranged from ethics and armchair Web critics to pack mentality, the cult of celebrity, and if I Spy or Pluto Nash was the crappiest Eddie Murphy movie of the year (that last debate sent Mitchell flying under the table again). And who says film critics are stodgy?
