Review Feedback

[Chris Gore]

Okay, here is your chance to mouth off about any review on the Film Threat web site. Be sure to note in your comments--
1) The name of the film (yeah, a lot of people forget)
2) The author of the review (we will often run multiple reviews on the site, so reference the reviewer's name)
3) A link to the review

Okay, now what do you have to say?

[Rory L. Aronsky]

Um....sorry???

[Seedy Edgewick]

I loved the flick, but I despised this review of Undercover Brother (http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=2926) by Marcus D. Russell. And yeah, I know he gave the film five stars.

Mr. Russell, if I wanted to read a highly intellectual, in-depth critical analysis of a film, I would have stayed an English Lit major. Your subtextual masturbation doesn't review the film as much as explain to we poor white folk why it's so far beyond our pathetic experiences.

My favorite quote is this: "In an autonomous sequence that will escape most of you, Undercover Brother sells out." Having seen the flick, I can tell you I'd have to be catatonic to not have seen how UB sells out, and I'm white. Like, really white; my ancestors hail from Finland. This kind of statement assumes that most everyone reading the review is white and, by definition, unable to comprehend the subtle and nuanced elements of black culture that pervade the flim. Which is ironic, since the guy goes on and on about the "oppression" of various "minorities" (including women, who make up over half the planet's population) in the movie.

I would have taken most of what Herr Russell had to say seriously if not for the abovementioned gaffe, along with various spelling mistakes ("Corkey Romano" being my fave). The whole thing comes off as an attempt by a failed English Professor to justify his own point of view.

For the record, I thought UB was really blanking funny. Hold on to that orange drink, man!

[AmaiStina]

Originally posted by Seedy Edgewick
I loved the flick, but I despised this review of Undercover Brother (http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=2926) by Marcus D. Russell. And yeah, I know he gave the film five stars.

Mr. Russell, if I wanted to read a highly intellectual, in-depth critical analysis of a film, I would have stayed an English Lit major.


I thought the first paragraph was a bit disorienting. Too many consecutive questions! ~!~

and to bring up Christian Metz? i would undoubtedly see his name pop up in The Cineaste or Film Quarterly, but i never thought i'd see it in any other non-academic context. trying to pick thru the brain here....i learned about Christian Metz in a contempory film theory class. he was a semiologist. he studied signs & the arbitrary nature between a sign or a word (signifier) & it what it represents (signification). good gawd..im actually remembering stuff from a class i didnt always pay active attention in!

i think it's perfectly fine to write critically about a film (even if it's just a mindless 2 hr romp in celluloid), especially if the analysis is focused, insightful, and well-written. but, one ought to keep one's audience in mind, and how much of what one writes is accessible to them.