At the Movies gets new film critics
August 5, 2009 by Jane Boursaw
If you were in the camp that thought Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz (pictured) were playing at being film critics and didn’t belong on "At the Movies," you are not alone, my friend.
Ok, so measuring up to Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel is not an easy task, to be sure. But the show deserves some long-time critics who do more than deliver lightweight movie reviews. And now the show is getting two guys who will hopefully do just that.
Taking those coveted seats in the balcony will be film critics A.O. Scott of the New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune.
The show started as "Sneak Previews" in 1975 with Siskel and Ebert as rival Chicago newspaper film critics. The new guys will follow suit. Scott has spent nearly a decade as a film critic at the New York Times, and was the Sunday book critic at Newsday and a freelance contributor to publications such as The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Review of Books.
Phillips, the film critic for the Chicago Tribune, has written about arts and entertainment for the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Image: Newscom
