Former MTV mainstay Kurt Loder still loves music, but these days you’re more likely to read him pontificating about “The Twilight Saga” than Lady Gaga.
Movies, says Loder, film critic for Reason.com, are “fresh material to me, in a way that music somehow isn’t. It’s tangible. It’s up on the screen.”
Loder’s movie commentaries – witty, wise and full of admiration on the rare occasions when the stars align to yield a great film – can now be held in your hand thanks to a new collection.
“The Good, the Bad and the God-Awful: 21st Century Movie Reviews” lets Loder opine on Hollywood’s recent movie releases. Loder slams “Australia,” praises “In Bruges” and puts more journalistic muscle into his take down of Michael Moore’s “Sicko” than most of his peers.
“Some movies are so appalling you wonder what went wrong … who said, ‘this is really good, let’s put it out,'” he says.
“The Good, the Bad and the God-Awful” compiles reviews into themes – like Schlockbusters (expensive flops), The Land That Laughs Forgot (comic duds) and Funtime (hilarious romps). He even dedicates an entire chapter to Nicolas Cage (“one of the great without-a-net highfliers of our time”). Loder may be most fond of Looking for Love, the section dedicated to great films still searching for an appreciative audience – like indie darling “The Brothers Bloom.”
Loder’s prose is prickly when the situation demands it, but he’s not a curmudgeon taking undue pleasure excoriating mediocre films. He also insists he’s a movie reviewer, not a film critic.
The latter group studies film as an art form, something he simply doesn’t have the time to do at this point in his impressive journalism career. Each movie scribe serves a purpose, although he suggests die-hard film fans should read material from each camp.
“If you’re really into movies you want both … you’ll want all the resonance you get from a film critic,” citing Dave Kehr and David Thomson as two personal favorites.
Loder contributes to Reason.com, a Libertarian site which reflects his own political attitudes. Just don’t expect him to interject politics into a cinematic treatise on “Transformers” or “Sherlock Holmes.”
“I try not to look at movies through the lens of politics,” he says, bemoaning how famed film critic Roger Ebert’s recent work too often does just that with predictably left-leaning results. But when the films demand a more thorough examination, like Moore’s aforementioned health care documentary, he won’t hesitate to put the film to a lie detector test.
Pop culture junkies may know Loder best for his lengthy tenure with MTV, but he also served as an editor with Rolling Stone magazine and wrote for Time, Details and Esquire magazines. He’s saddened to see so many movie and music writers heading to the unemployment lines these days, and he realizes they may not be able to make a new name for themselves on the cluttered Internet. Still, the best of the best eventually rise to the top.
“It’s a very difficult time, a transitional time in media,” he says, and he isn’t sure how it will all shake out eventually.
He’s far more certain that nothing he can say or type will dissuade a Twi-Hard from camping out to see the latest “Twilight” feature. But he hopes his prose can have a modest boost for films which could use a little appreciation.
“I try to review movies that aren’t gonna get an national release … maybe [movie reviewers] can help them get one,” he says, citing unsung gems like “The Brothers Bloom,” “Zodiac” and “Sunshine.”
Of the current crop of new films, Loder singles out “Like Crazy,” the buzzed about romance co-starring Felicity Jones.
“It’s so well done and edited, but how many people will see it?” he asks.
He admits it’s more fun to slam an awful movie than praise a neo-classic, but ultimately a movie reviewer’s job is to make suggestions that help the reader juggle schedules accordingly.
“You have to winnow it down somehow … and try not to waste your time on movies that are dreadful,” he says. And he hopes “The Good, the Bad and the God-Awful” can help.
The Web may rule in 2011, but there’s still something potent in having a book in hand to guide your movie selections.
Even the best web-published reviews are “ephemeral … they drift off into the digital ether,” he says.
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