Entertainment relic goes down the tubes
Last Wednesday, At the Movies was finally, tragically canceled. The movie review television show — originally made famous by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert — will air for the last time this August.
Even current co-host A. O. Scott, one of the nation’s sharpest minds in film criticism, expressed a certain not-surprise at receiving the news. The show has been headed in this direction for some time and over the years, it’s been like watching the brick-by-brick collapse of a once-towering cultural pillar.
Scott knew, I knew — everyone knew this was coming. But even the inevitable can still sting.
A lot has been said about what this means. Some people are calling it the end of an era. I like pop-culture critic Ken Tucker’s remark best: “There will be a lot of wailing about At The Movies disappearing, but such protestations are like the ones that abounded when Conan O’Brien was ousted from The Tonight Show — i.e., it’s likely that few of the people who now regret the passing of At The Movies are actually watching it every week these days.”
Ken’s right. At the Movies has become a show most people know about — it’s the thumbs-up, thumbs-down show, right? (not anymore, actually) — but few actually watch. I’m one of the few.
Some of it is our fault as viewers (or non-viewers), some of it is Disney-ABC Domestic Television’s. Despite mistakes in the past, Disney redeemed itself by bringing in Scott and Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips as the new hosts. Their rigorous intellectual debate on the show harks back to Siskel and Ebert’s. And the web exclusives aren’t too shabby, either.
But it obviously wasn’t enough. It’s exasperating, but we can’t be mad. Our appetite for wholesome film criticism — the stuff Scott and Phillips put out each week — has been curbed by a steady diet of blog-post chaff. In the age of Twitter, who needs stuffy Ivy Leaguers spinning out esoteric appraisals of little-seen films from the comfort of their plushy armchairs?
It boils down to this: criticism is necessary because it keeps artists producing art. Once we stop thinking critically about something — once we stop talking about it — it stops trying to improve itself. The cancellation of At the Movies will not ruin movies, obviously, but it signifies a not-so-subtle shift in our priorities.
Do we need middle-aged men telling us which movies we should see, rent or skip? Sure, maybe, but that was never the point of At the Movies. It was to chat for 30 minutes each week about why certain films work and why others don’t. It’s a conversation we’ve been having for all time — and one we must not let be silenced.