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A year spent sitting in the dark
Published: 9/13/2007 5:38 PM
Last Modified: 9/13/2007 5:38 PM

When I accepted the position of film critic for the Tulsa World last September, I accepted all that comes with that position. Here’s what I’ve learned in a year’s time.

1. My own personal critics, through voice mails and e-mails, range from the erudite (“Mr. Smith, you can sometimes be a self-indulgent critic, as I’m sure you know”) to the salty (“`Halloween’ was awesome, Rob Zombie is a genius, and you are a #$!%&*@”).

2. Dennis King, the marvelously talented writer who held this job for 20 years before myself, was prescient when he said the public’s general assessment of my job would be the following: Whatever he likes, I hate; whatever he hates, I like; so I just do the reverse of whatever he says.

3. Stadium seating, great sound, clean as a whistle – the AMC Southroads 20 immediately became my favorite theater upon its opening 10 years ago, and it remains so. Question for Starworld about those chewed-up rubber armrests: Were they laced with bacon and then wild dogs allowed to roam free?

4. Just as the heat wave dissipates, and the nights are nice enough to enjoy a double-feature at the Admiral Twin Drive-in, it closes for the season shortly after Labor Day.

5. If we didn’t have the Circle Cinema to embrace and present many of the world’s most intriguing art-house flicks, foreign films and documentaries – often with guest speakers and other tie-ins that put the works in perspective – the cultural landscape of Tulsa would be a little less rich.

6. The Tulsa metropolitan area is tiny, at least in the eyes of Hollywood. If you’ve ever wondered why the Spot magazine didn’t have the latest film release reviewed, that’s because studios including Warner Bros. and Universal screen none of their films in advance in Tulsa. The big boys often cover top 40 markets, sometimes smaller, depending on the film. We are, according to one person in the know, No. 67.

7. Jon Voight will appear in anything for a paycheck; Jamie Foxx should stay away from musicals; Jane Fonda should stay away from films if she thinks a comedy centered around incest is a comeback vehicle; whoever decided to pair up Kristin Chenoweth as wife to Danny DeVito in a Christmas movie should be fired.

8. Halle Berry is more gorgeous in person than in print or films, and looking back, I realize how gracious she was, talking to me for 20 minutes one-on-one, and doing the same for 20 other journalists; theater veterans like Ben Kingsley and Brenda Blethyn made for more interesting 15-minute interviews than, um, other people I spoke to this past year; dramatic actress Naomi Watts was quite funny when I spoke to her, while action-comedy star and famous motormouth Chris Tucker was quiet and serious. So, you just never know.

9. Whenever anyone starts a conversation with “What makes you qualified to talk about these movies…” I immediately prepare the line that our wonderfully witty country music writer John Wooley supplied me long before he also retired last September: “I get paid to do this.”

10. Lastly, anytime I even remotely consider complaining about work, I put it in perspective: I watch movies for a living. The title of this blog, “I See Movies for Free,” beat out “Yes, I Get Paid for This” and “Not Bad Work If You Can Get It.” I know I’ve got it good.

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? (5 years ago)

“I get paid to do this.”

That's the most interesting twist on the might-makes-right principle I've seen in some time.

For a film reviewer, Smith is an okay sports guy.

NgPxrNWtxb (5 years ago)

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CUDBSIdf (4 years ago)

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nRMBUAnrWsuS (4 years ago)

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I See Movies for Free

“I was born a poor, black child” … not me, actually, but Steve Martin’s character in the “The Jerk.” That absurd opening line is just one of the absurd number of film facts, quotes and minutiae contained in movie critic Michael Smith’s brain, at his disposal to toss out on a moment’s notice. It’s a key requirement as Tulsa World film critic to know these things. Michael learned a few other life facts along the way (seven years as a Crystal’s Pizza & Spaghetti manager) before attempting journalism and joining the Tulsa World in 1996, where he’s covered everything from a school shooting in Fort Gibson to a tornado in Stroud to witnessing an execution. A little community theater coverage was sprinkled in there, too. Movies engender many of his happiest memories, from standing in line for “Star Wars” and “Grease” at the Southroads Cinema to the James Bond and Pink Panther movies that always premiered at the enormous Continental Theater.

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