John Simon is a maddening individual. He is the premier example on what William Goldman called the "Supercritic". This is one who seems to always find merit in works the majority of his/her colleagues dismiss, and grandly dismisses works most others praise. It would seem, therefore, that he should be likewise easy to dismiss... except for two things.
First, even when he is tearing apart a much beloved film or praising some dismal exercise, he's, well, right! That is, his points are always on the mark and exceedingly well argued, This can hurt, albeit briefly, any future viewings of a favorite film, and, probably, enhance viewings of a "dog" (I say "probably" because life's too short to test out this latter proposition). Second, he is. without doubt or peer, the most brilliant, witty, and pithy writer on (pick your subject-he's written on them all) Music, Theater, Books, or, as in this case, Film, not only of our time but, arguably, of all time.
Sure he's uncommonly (and unnecessarily) cruel to those he dislikes, commenting not only on their abilities (fair game), but on their looks, intelligence, life-style, what-have-you.
And, sure, he can be so maddeningly erudite that you know he's using words and phrases whose meaning only he can tell. But, those words! That wit! Do NOT start reading this 700+ collection of some two decades of reviews unless you've lots of time at your disposal, because once you start, you will NOT be able to stop,
Product Description"I find John's critical writing immensely entertaining even when I'm not in agreement... He has the gift, such a rare one, of being able to analyze the work in question, to be able to say why it is that it's so powerful, so touching; or, on the othe
About the Author
John Simon (1925-) was born in Yugoslavia and awarded his PhD in comparative literature from Harvard University. He has written theatre, film, music, and book reviews for many eminent publications, inc. New York, Esquire, Hudson Review, Opera News, and the New York Times Book Review. He is a past winner of the George Jean Nathan Award and the George Polk Award for Film Criticism. He lives in New York City. Bruce Beresford is the acclaimed director of Breaker Morant, and Driving Miss Daisy among others
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Riley's and Rimmer's guide is a must-have for serious comsumers of pornography, covering, as it does, the years when (arguably) porn first skirted the crusted fringe of mainstream pop-culture. True, pornography perhaps first demanded critical scrunity whenVHS brought it out of the ... booth in the 80s; but such a demand was, at best, muted. But when "Ass Rage 3" and "Natural Bone Drillers" (both given 5 stars in this guide) hit the shelves we witnessed an artistic reclamation which enabled the soi-disant culturally savvy elite to buff the chubster and bandy about terms like "Gen-X kitsch" and "post-PC irony." This tremendous guide is alive to that seminal shift, and indeed provides video-still evidence of several graphic examples of it. Hats off to the authors for such a perceptive treatment.
