NY Post critic who panned film about Sarah Palin finds himself 'uninvited' to screening

Sarah Palin doesn't like the media much. They have their "gotcha" questions about what newspapers she reads; they run around fact-checking her take on American history -- no wonder she calls them "the lamestream media".

Kyle Smith, a film critic for the New York Post, saw an advance screening of a new film about her before it was fully complete. It's typical for film writers to see a movie several times, and sometimes the earliest screening may have some unfinished scenes, especially if music needs to be mixed in or complicated special effects are being finalized at the 11th hour. 

Smith saw an early cut of the Palin documentary "The Undefeated" and filed a negative critique saying the film, which will open in selected cities later this month, "is just a fan film from an outsider hitching a ride on [Palin's] fame, hoping that attention from political reporters in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will provide a springboard for a national release [of the movie]."

Smith complained: "Its tone is an excruciating combination of bombast and whining, it’s so outlandishly partisan that it makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln and its febrile rush of images -- not excluding earthquakes, car wrecks, volcanic eruption and attacking rottweilers -- reminded me of the brainwash movie Alex is forced to sit through in 'A Clockwork Orange.' Except no one came along to refresh my pupils with eyedrops."

Apparently Victory Films wasn't pleased, and Smith found his invite for Friday's critics' screening revoked. He explained it all in one paragraph on his personal blog with the headline "The Uninvited":

Yesterday I was told twice via email by flacks for “Victory Films’” Sarah Palin documentary “The Undefeated” that I was “confirmed” for tomorrow’s “critics’ screening” of the film preparatory to its limited release in mostly red states later this month. Today I am told that I am no longer invited. Of course I will be mercilessly mocking this decision if it is not rescinded. I have told Victory that it is me or nobody from The Post who will be seeing the final cut of the film at what appears to be the only critics’ screening in New York City. Their response: “Understood.”

Politico's Ben Smith says "a source in the film's camp blames a broken embargo", meaning Kyle Smith may have agreed not to review the film as early as he did and Victory is punishing him for going rogue.

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-- Tony Pierce
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Photo: Sarah Palin outside the Opera House before the June 28 premiere of "The Undefeated" in Pella, Iowa. Credit: AP Photo/The Des Moines Register, Andrea Melendez

Andrew Malcolm is on assignment.