"The Critic" (Ian McKellen) and other movies/plays about critics

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 12:59pm

A trailer for the new Ian McKellen movie The Critic was released today and it looks like a juicy thriller with a wonderfully bitchy performance from Sir Ian.

It made me think of other protrayals of critics on stage and screen... one that immediately came to mind was the comedy Critic's Choice by Ira Levin, a play I enjoyed reading and am considering directing in the future, but boy howdy did the film adaptation with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball miss the mark big time. It's one of those adaptations where you can tell the screwed it up from the very first scene.

I have a lot of respect for (most) critics and its safe to say they are very rarely treated fairly when the artists they judge portray them. But it can still be fun nonetheless.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 1:35pm

Addison DeWitt, of course.

The 90s animated series "The Critic" with Jon Lovitz ("It stinks!")

I'm sad that Quentin Tarantino abandoned his next film, "The Movie Critic," about a critic writing for a porno rag in the 60s/70s.

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 2:25pm

In a way Ratatouille is about critics (and I mean that completely unironically)

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 2:28pm

chrishuyen said: "In a way Ratatouille is about critics (and I mean that completely unironically)"

I agree 100% and it's a very humanizing portrait of a critic. As opposed to a b*tchy, power-hungry chaos agent like Addison DeWitt.

[The Other One]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 5:32pm

KevinKlawitter said: "...It made me think of other protrayals of critics on stage and screen... one that immediately came to mind was the comedy Critic's Choice by Ira Levin, a play I enjoyed reading and am considering directing in the future, but boy howdy did the film adaptation with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball miss the mark big time. It's one of those adaptations where you can tell the screwed it up from the very first scene."

Waldo Lydecker from the Preminger film Laura and Jedediah Leland in Citizen Kane come to mind.

I've neither read nor seen the film of Critic's Choice, but everyone seems to feel it was botched in its screen transition.

Updated On: 7/2/24 at 05:32 PM

[JSquared2]

Posted: 7/1/24 at 5:49pm

Let's not forget perhaps the most famous movie about drama critics  -- the Vincent Price camp classic Theatre of Blood.

It was also adapted into a stage play at The National Theatre in 2005 starring Jim Broadbent.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Blood