Friday, March 07, 2008

As The Film Critics Turn: A Surprise Twist at the Daily News

Beleaguered Tabloid Bucks Trend of Pruning Critic Roster; Replaces Jack Mathews With Joe Neumaier

Newspapers big and small, such as the Sun-Sentinel in south Florida, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, anxious to trim budgets, have decreed that arts critics of various stripes are expendable, in favor of running reviews from syndicates and wires.
So, when longtime Daily News chief film critic Jack Mathews announced recently he'd spent enough time in screening rooms, and would be headed to a long-awaited retirement on the Oregon coast, the betting money was on the News using that as an excuse to eliminate his position.
Happily, that is not the case and FishbowlNY reports Joe Neumaier, the paper's Sunday feature editor, now has the job.
Neumaier's a seasoned film writer for a variety of pubs, and at least in the press release, he's saying all the right things about the right way to approach a film critic's job, someone passionate about the movies without being an obsessive, nit-picky fan or egghead academic.
His reviews of "10,000 B.C." and "Married Life" show he's off to a good start.

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