Shocker: 'People' critic skips summer movie season

What would happen if you kept a film critic from seeing an entire summer season of movies? Would they start hallucinating, climbing the walls, begging for a little Judd Apatow fix? Or would they start joyously bounding around, kicking their feet in the air, shouting "Free at last, Lord almighty, I'm free at last?"

It sounds like a twisted, Kubrickian laboratory experiment that could easily go awry. But it's actually happened this summer to my pal Leah Rozen, longtime film critic at People magazine, who's been on sabbatical this summer, tending to family matters. I asked her to write a little essay about how much separation anxiety her months away from the multiplex had caused. As it turns out—don't let this get around!—critics can kick the movie habit just as easily as any civilian. Here's her report:

When I first told Fred, my 8-year-old nephew and regular consultant on kids’ films, that I was going to take all summer off on sabbatical, he asked with sympathy, “You mean you’re going to miss all the great summer movies?”

And so I have. Happily. This has been my summer of living like a normal person. By which I mean that Hollywood and its offerings have been the faintest of blips on my radar screen. After more than a decade as the full-time movie critic for People magazine in New York City, I’ve been on sabbatical since June, devoting the summer to cleaning out my parents’ house in central Pennsylvania.

So far, I have seen exactly one movie: "Wall-E." (It was terrific.) That’s quite a contrast to my usual work schedule of viewing between five and 10 movies a week.

What I miss most: seeing quirky indies and foreign films and the well-made, glossy Hollywood vehicle. What I miss least: studios scheduling screenings at the last minute and right up against my deadline, which means I have to view the movie, rush back to the office that night and dash off a review in 45 minutes flat. (You know that I’m praying that the flick will be a stinker because it is so much easier to whip off an entertaining pan than to find exactly the perfect words to explain and extol a winner; there are so many splendid  synonyms for “suck” and so few for “good.”)

What has astonished me is how quickly, and how easily, I have gotten out of the habit of movie-going. When you’re not being paid to see films, and are instead yourself paying (and are on half-salary for sabbatical and shelling out massive wads of green for gas), it’s easy to pass up such uninspiring offerings as "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

Even the Hollywood fare that tempts me, "The Dark Knight" and, yes, "Mamma Mia!," I haven’t managed to see yet. They’re both playing at the local multiplexes, but I find that the first evening showing is generally when I’m having dinner and the second showing gets out too late. It just seems easier to spend the time packing yet another box, checking e-mail, heading off on a bicycle ride, going grocery shopping, or doing the myriad of other activities that regular folk do instead of going to the movies. After all, these films will be out on DVD in a couple of months and I can catch up with them then.

I know it’s heresy as a film critic to say this, and I’m appalled to find myself—I’ve been besotted with movies since I was an adolescent—acting and thinking this way. But there you have it.  I never used to understand why the average American over age 30 sees only a handful of movies a year in a theater; now I do.

But come September, I’m back at work. Happily. And back to being hopeful before the start of each screening that this new film just might be a great one. Or at least one I can confidently and comfortably recommend to readers as worth their time and the ticket price. Unless they have boxes to pack, e-mail to check, bicycles to pedal....

Photo by Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[tom d.]

Nice to see that a professional critic doesn't make prejudgements about films she hasn't seen. That was sarcasm. The readers don't miss you, either, Leah. One less sheep in the flock.

[Dan]

Yep, having to see five to ten movies a week, that I don't want to see, is pretty much why I'll never become a professional critic. I can see that being the job from hell, especially if you enjoy movies.

[Louise]

Hi, Thanx for this update - I didn't know what the story is with Leah, whose People Magazine movie reviews I'm addicted to ("Alexander makes Troy look like a masterpiece . . ."). Especially, I tore the magazine apart looking for her - or your, if you're reading this, Leah! - review of Tropic Thunder. I entered searches on Google, looking for Leah's comments. Ben Lyons from the Daily Ten, didn't review it, so I was going through withdrawels of not hearing from the critics I like. E! must be against Tropic Thunder.

That's it! Thanx for the update what Leah is doing!