‘We are all critics’ when it comes to reacting to the movie we’re watching, she says
By Kathleen Burns
Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday said her career as a film reviewer was “completely by accident,” rather than a methodical mapping out of what to do next. “I am still amazed that I got a job at what I think is one of the best [news]papers in the U.S.!”
Speaking to the DC SPJ Chapter on Sept. 19, she told of leaving behind her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, and heading East for college at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. When she finished her liberal arts degree, she moved to New York City and found a job with Ms. magazine as a research and editorial assistant. “Business was booming in magazines,” she said, and, as a freelancer, she was “writing for anybody I could,” but she wasn’t specializing in movie reviews.
Eventually, she started writing for the New York Times Arts and Leisure section, as well as other publications. The exposure that got her resulted in an offer at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas, which was looking for “a film critic who could also report.” Then she returned East, first to the Baltimore Sun as its movie critic, and from there to Post in 2002.
From the beginning, she set out her own criteria for the movie reviews she would write:
- What was the artist trying to create?
- Did they achieve it?
- And was it worth it?
There was a “lot of learning on the job as a critic,” but she also continued to refine her reporting skills, interviewing actors, casting directors and all the people behind the scenes for stories about the movie industry as a whole. Hornaday said she worked to keep her own biases out of the way in writing her assessments. “There may be an audience for this movie, even if I don’t love it,” she tells herself.
However, she has refused some assignments, such as the movie “Deep Throat.” Hornaday noted that “I don’t do cultural porn.”
Noting some student journalists in the audience as well as seasoned pros, she reminded them that reporting skills are crucial to what she does. Movies, she added, are a form of visual storytelling, “and we are all asked to be critics.”
Given that Hollywood is often her “beat,” she was asked if interviewing all the famous “stars” ever caused her to pause, caught up in the moment. Turns out, only a few days before her talk, megastar Brad Pitt dropped in at the Post to talk about his new movie, “Ad Astra,” and the whole newspaper staff was agog. She wrote two stories from that session — one about the actual movie and another about the production and development of the film. And up at the Toronto International Film Festival, the previous week, she rubbed shoulders with Bruce Springsteen, whose music features in the real-life story behind the film, “Blinded by the Light.”
Timing is everything when deciding to release a film, she said, especially if the studio has aspirations for Academy Award nominations. And films released too early in the year can be forgotten when members of the Academy cast their ballots months later.
Sometimes the creators of films with a modest budget can reap a windfall. Hornaday noted that the movie “Green Book” came out of nowhere. And then it was shown at the Toronto Film Festival “and it wowed everyone,” she said. “Clearly it was connecting with the audience.” The so-called “low-budget” film, which cost $20 million to make, generated $300 million at the box office. And at the 2019 Academy Awards presentation, the picture won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay, plus two nominations for Best Actor and Best Film Editing. “And it did spectacularly well in China,” because the dialogue was easy to translate into subtitles, Hornaday said.
Rubbing her crystal ball for Oscars predictions coming out of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Hornaday told the audience that some she thinks will do well with Academy Awards and ticket sales include:
- “JoJo Rabbit”— which proved an audience favorite at the Festival. The tale of a 10-year-old boy growing up in Nazi Germany, she described it as a “really in your face” drama about “moral development … and losing your way and finding it.” (Oct. 18 release set)
- “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” — with Tom Hanks “doing a great job” playing the role of childhood favorite Fred Rogers of the television show “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” (Nov. 22 release set)
- “Ford v Ferrari” — another true story, of the Ford Motor automotive designer Carroll Shelby and a race car driver Ken Miles as they battle corporate interference in the race to build an innovative vehicle to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966. (Nov. 15 release set)
- “Knives Out” — featuring Jamie Lee Curtis and an all-star cast (Daniel Craig, Don Johnson, Christopher Plummer), is a comedy along the lines of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, and “it’s fun to watch!” (Nov. 27 release set)
For foreign films, a prominent contender to capture audience attention could be the Norwegian film, “Hope,” about a deteriorating marriage, and Hornaday describes the film as “riveting.”
And for DC audiences in particular, Hornaday said “The Report” should appeal to those who follow the dramas that reflect congressional actions, this one based on the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture. It features Annette Benning playing Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif. (Nov. 15 release set)
