Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: critic

critic stories: 16 news summaries

 Help Wanted: Pot Critic 

As pot grows semi-legal, connoisseurs wanted

Oct 5, 09 12:38 PM CDT
(Newser) - In the midst of media layoffs, one Colorado newspaper is actually hiring: It’s looking for a pot critic. The number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver has exploded to more than 100 this year, and the alt-weekly Westword wants someone with a legit medical need to evaluate which are... More »

MORE ABOUT:
newspaper • Denver • medical marijuana • marijuana • marijuana legalization • critic

OPINION

 Mad Men Goes Mad on Purpose 


Sep 28, 09 2:40 PM CDT
(Newser) - Critics have begun to worry about Mad Men. Gory lawnmower accidents? Unexpected death? Grueling, drugged-up childbirth? “Where have all the snifters of brandy and jaunty shrimp cocktails gone?” asks Heather Havrilesky of Salon. She’s kidding, of course. Mad Men has spun into insanity so quickly because... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • critic • Mad Men • Matthew Weiner

Times, Tribune Critics Next-Gen Siskel & Ebert

Dueling critics Scott, Phillips mark return to old At the Movies format

Aug 6, 09 8:19 AM CDT
(Newser) - At the Movies, the longtime home of Chicago critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, is getting a new pair of dueling cineastes. AO Scott of the New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune will take over the syndicated program, which returns to the air next month. The... More »

MORE ABOUT:
critic • Roger Ebert • movies • film criticism • Gene Siskel • television program • AO Scott

S. African Wines Aim to Put Brakes on 'Burnt Rubber' Rap

Exporters try to cast off a critic's harsh judgment

Jun 29, 09 4:52 PM CDT
(Newser) - South African is the ninth-largest producer of wine, with several distinctive varietals that should be poised to break into the global marketplace, the New York Times reports. But the country’s wines have been dogged by comments made in 2007 by an influential British wine critic, who said after a... More »

MORE ABOUT:
wine • South Africa • critic • red wine • Britain • wine industry • Jay-ZTV • white wine • Jane MacQuitty

TV REVIEW

 Gigolo Comedy 
 Pays Off for HBO 

HBO's newest is more than a sex gag, but needs to develop further

Jun 26, 09 3:39 PM CDT
(Newser) - Critics are split on Hung, HBO's new series starring Thomas Jane as a down-on-his-luck dad who becomes a gigolo. Though it's deeper than its salacious premise, the show, which makes its debut Sunday, isn't living up to its potential.
  • Hung "represents a wonderfully positive step for HBO,
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • HBO • critic • reviews • Thomas Jane

(Newser) - Hugh Jackman’s turn hosting the Oscars reversed a dip in the award show’s sagging ratings, E! Online reports—even if some critics didn’t find much substance. Early Nielsen numbers had 33.6 million viewers for last night’s telecast, up 6% from last year’s Jon Stewart-hosted... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Academy Awards • award show • critic • TV ratings • Perez Hilton • Hugh Jackman • Oscars


 Art World Still 
 Divided on Wyeth 

Some call him modern; others, 'corny Americana'

Jan 17, 09 9:32 AM CST
(Newser) - Andrew Wyeth divided the art community throughout his life, and little seems to have changed with his passing yesterday. While many in the field call him one of the most important 20th-century American artists, others insist his mode of realism makes him more of an illustrator than a serious painter,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
art • painting • critic • painter • artist • Andrew Wyeth

OPINION

Best 2008 Movies You Probably Missed

Salon's critic's favorite flicks are an eclectic bunch

Dec 25, 08 5:18 PM CST
(Newser) - Behold: a top 10 movies list that doesn't include The Dark Knight. In a year that's hard to sum up, Stephanie Zarachek pulls together an eclectic mix of great flicks for Salon:
  • Even repeated viewings don't betray any flaws in Happy-Go-Lucky, a "luminous" tale of a London
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
movie review • critic • foreign film • movies • Best of 2008

book review

 Sontag's 
 Early 
 Journals 
 Mesmerize 

Journals tell a touching tale of earnest self-creation

Dec 16, 08 6:15 PM CST
(Newser) - The newly released diaries of a young Susan Sontag provide an invaluable glimpse of how the writer-to-be came to be, critics say. “I do not just express myself more openly than I could do to any person," the late Sontag writes of journaling. "I create myself."... More »

MORE ABOUT:
critic • writer • journals • intellectual • Susan Sontag • self-improvement

 Critic John Leonard Dead at 69 

Lung cancer claims Vonnegut's 'smartest man who ever lived'

Nov 6, 08 4:15 PM CST
(Newser) - Critic and author John Leonard died last night after a long battle with cancer. Leonard, whom Kurt Vonnegut once called "the smartest man who ever lived," was 69. A brilliant but not flashy stylist, an unapologetic liberal, and a mentor to countless younger writers, Leonard worked at various... More »

MORE ABOUT:
television • CBS • Kurt Vonnegut • critic • book • literary criticism • New York magazine • John Leonard

INTERVIEW

New Yorker Pop Critic Admits 'Indie' Gaffes

Says his peers are loath to concede
critical mistakes

Sep 1, 08 10:51 AM CDT
(Newser) - You may have missed it, but the New Yorker pays attention to pop music. Flip past articles on dead American poets and you might find insightful, sometimes scathing, music critiques by Sasha Frere-Jones. The musician and critic sat down with Gelf Magazine to discuss the problems with defining indie rock—... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • New Yorker magazine • pop culture • critic • Sasha Frere-Jones • indie rock • interview

FOOD & WINE

 Greek Whites
 'Smack of Sunshine'

Unpretentious pleasures for aficianados who branch out

Aug 6, 08 1:29 PM CDT
(Newser) - In honor of the Olympics, Eric Asimov set out to rediscover Greece's white wines for the New York Times. He found whites just subtly different from the made-to-be-drunk young bottles of Italy and Spain, fermented from "unfamiliar, indigenous grapes grown nowhere else." The moschofilero varietal dominated the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
New York Times • wine • Greece • critic • reviews • dining

 Economist
 Rates Art
 by Numbers

Professor studies textbook reproductions to determine greatness

Aug 4, 08 8:52 AM CDT
(Newser) - Most art historians would agree that Pablo Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon is a great painting. But one economist says it's the best work of art of the 20th century, and he can prove it. The New York Times reports on the work of David Galenson, who analyzed the frequency of reproductions... More »

MORE ABOUT:
art • economics • critic • Pablo Picasso • quantitative analysis

 Ebert Ready to Review Again 

Critic gives thumbs up to imminent return

Apr 1, 08 9:07 PM CDT
(Newser) - Roger Ebert—beset by a series of serious health ailments in recent years—will soon resume reviewing films, he wrote in a letter to Chicago Sun-Times readers. The critic was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002; since then he’s undergone several surgeries, including a tracheotomy that cost him his... More »

MORE ABOUT:
film • movie review • critic • Roger Ebert • thyroid cancer

Food Critic Grilled Over Steak Review

Steamed chef may force Philly writer
to reveal identity in court

Jul 3, 07 4:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - A miffed chef is suing the restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer after he reviewed a $15 slab of steak as "miserably tough and fatty." But the suit could be even more of a raw deal than expected for writer Craig LaBan, who was ordered to give a... More »

MORE ABOUT:
free speech • libel • First Amendment • restaurant • Craig LaBan • Philadelphia Inquirer • deposition • chef • lawsuit • critic

Movie Critic
Joel Siegel
Dead at 63

GMA's long-time reviewer succumbs
to colon cancer

Jun 30, 07 10:26 AM CDT
(Newser) - Joel Siegel, the veteran film critic for Good Morning America known for concision and wit, died yesterday after a long battle with colon cancer. Siegel's good humor and enthusiasm for movies didn't stop him from delivering a well-aimed pan.  "No one had more fun writing about a bad... More »

MORE ABOUT:
film • obituary • Joel Siegel • colon cancer • civil rights • critic • Good Morning America • Robert F. Kennedy • movies

16 Stories


from our news partners