Well, it’s now Christmas Eve, the war on Christmas (wholly manufactured by lamebrain right-wing pundits with too much time and a sinking administration on their hands—hiya Bill and John!) is nearly over, and I’m snug with laptop and eggnog well within reach of the glow from my in-laws’ Christmas tree, done up in candy canes, red ribbons and starfish. All’s quiet on Boston’s North Shore.
We here at Reverseblog want to thank everyone for reading us in our inaugural year, especially those who took the time to write in and call us morons, idiots, turks, and all the rest. We also want to send a very special thanks to our friends at indieWIRE for graciously offering to host our scattered musings. In the next few weeks we’ll be publishing our thoughts on the best and worst films of 2005 with indieWIRE, followed by our usual in-depth coverage on Reverse Shot itself, so please stay tuned.
Given the season, we’re all feeling a little misty-eyed and generous, and as the Reverseblog is well-known for pointing out instances of disagreement with other critics, we thought that now might be a nice time to dole out some well-deserved praise. So, thank you Manohla Dargis for your thoughtful, considered writings on Munich and The New World in The New York Times. Calling your articles “reviews” would be to do them a disservice since their overall thrust seems not to just proclaim these films “good” or “bad” but to publicly wrestle with their various conceptual and aesthetic strands in the hopes that if the breadth of intellectual inquest in these films can be foregrounded, that they might somehow rise above all the lazy editorializing, pithy commentary, and hyperbole.
I have not seen Munich yet, but your words have only left me even more eager. And as for The New World, which many of us here hold quite dear, hopefully your shot across the bow of its detractors will help spark the dialogue the film seeks, and keep it from landing in the dustbins of 2005. Thank you Manohla, and Happy Holidays.
