ABOUT THIS PAGE

Little to say except that I am a New York City-based film critic for Culturevulture.net and TheHighHat.com and freelancer for various print publications like Cineaste.  This site provides a link to my reviews to those places as well as reviews I write specifically for this site (which tend to be shorter).   It also contains loads of lists so you can get an idea of my tastes and recommendations.

About those ratings you'll see here and there.  Ratings on my page are based on that most commonly used best-out-of-**** system.  The equivalent quality I'd give these star ratings follow:

****    Masterpiece, one for the ages
***1/2  Excellent, near great
***     Good, meaning possibly worth the $10.00 these damn Manhattan theaters now charge
**1/2   Average, numerous flaws but also some worthwhile moments
**      Eh, take it or leave it
*1/2    Skip, or watch on free tv with lots of background distractions
*       Reading html code is more interesting than this
0       If you haven't had a lobotomy, I don't recommend watching this

You'll find lots of top 10 lists on my site, so I'll offer the usual caveats.  Yes, ten is an arbitrary number, but it's tradition.  One year, I may find there are 14 truly noteworthy to be singled out and some years maybe only 8, for not all years are created equal in terms of cinematic quality.  Still, I'll stick with tradition (except for the occasional instance when I can't help myself) and limit (or extend as the case may be) my lists to 10 for consistency's sake.  All dates of release listed are intended to reflect the year of commercial release in any country and is not necessarily the year a film debuts in a film festival.   I categorize my top 10 lists by the year of commercial release in any country (so not necessarily the U.S.).  My rationale is not based on a valuation of commercialism, but because I think a film only truly enters public consciousness upon mass distribution.  Granted some films may only get released on one or two screens for the entire length of its run in any given country, but that will have to count as mass distribution under my system.