I really enjoy reading or listening to a good review. The works of critics like John Powers, Bob Mondello, Jerry Saltz, Micheal Kimmelman, Maurren Corrigan, A.O. Scott and Elvis Mitchell are very enjoyable. All of these critics ‘writings avoid five-star-systems and references to Caesar’s thumbs. At their best, the critiqued works are presented, taken apart, its inwards spread about; the works (film, art, music or literature) are seen as a whole, and seen within its discipline and against or as part of greater culture.
A.O. Scott’s review of Miami Vice is a good example. He referenced some plot details (Tubbs and Crokett are deep under cover), set locations (Miami, Haiti, Paraguay, The Dominican Republic standing in for Cuba), Michael Mann’s manly characters (Al Pacino in Heat, Tom Cruise in Collateral Damage; he doesn’t really write of their style), Mann’s usage of music and pyrotechnics as Wagnerian, some abstract sequences in the manner of Stan Brakhage, and Colin Farrell’s lack of presence in the movie.
