Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris is an American journalist and Critic at Large for the New York Times. Morris is a former full-time writer for the website Grantland. He won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his 2011 work with The Boston Globe--the fifth film critic to win the award--citing "his smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and the big-screen box office"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCritic
CountryUnited States of America
views criticism trying
If I like a movie, I'm definitely advocating for it, but it's not "you should see this" or "you shouldn't see this." I try to take a longer view about what the movie is doing and where it fits in the context of other things, in the way that certain good literary criticism tries to do the same thing.
apple beneath future jobs kubrick predicted space standing stanley store technology white
Standing beneath the white light of an Apple store is like standing on a Stanley Kubrick movie set. His '2001: A Space Odyssey' predicted Jobs and a future where technology was our friend. Kubrick, of course, didn't like what he saw. And occasionally, I have my doubts.
believers church collection heads keeping life lost souls themselves true via
'The Tree of Life' is a collection of conversations that lost souls and true believers have with themselves while keeping their heads to the sky. But the movie is church via the planetarium.
america anyone asian certain easily exactly familiar hispanic listens might music pop races watches white
Anyone who watches a lot of television, or listens to pop music, is familiar with a certain vision of America. If not exactly colorblind, this America is one in which different races easily interact, in which a white person might have an Asian boss, Hispanic stepson, or African-American frenemy.
bobby bothered curly fourth love men peter
No, I don't know why Bobby and Peter Farrelly bothered with a 'Three Stooges' movie, either. But if they're anything like some men I know, their love for Moe, Larry, and Curly (and an assortment of fourth bananas) is deep, abiding, and unembarrassable. In other words: How could the Farrellys not?
adam brooks culture forces good hair israeli lands manages mess similar soldier somewhere special strike vaguely whose
'The Dictator' lands somewhere between wan Mel Brooks and good Adam Sandler, whose 'You Don't Mess With the Zohan,' about an Israeli Special Forces soldier at a hair salon, manages to strike better contrasts with vaguely similar culture differences - it's a nuttier movie, too.
writing race interesting
Everybody brings their thing to their criticism. I bring this wealth of opinions and feeling and knowledge about race and gender and sexuality. I feel like I have it, I may as well express it, and if it's applicable to what I'm writing about and I'm not forcing it, I should try to use it, because it's interesting. It speaks to more than some people.
views interpretation
Anything produced and then exhibited for public view is open to interpretation.
art book pieces
A movie is just like a work of art or a book or a piece of music. The intent of its maker is one thing, but its interpretation by an audience is something else. I don't stop at what the filmmaker wanted to do.
people rooms bunch
I love to go to the movies with people, but a lot of the time it's me in a room with a bunch of other movie critics, which is fine.
nice gauges needs
I don't need the audience, but sometimes it's nice to have a gauge - not so I know how I feel, but so I get what is or isn't working for moviegoers.
views voice important
I just have to be able to follow and enjoy the writer's voice and the writer's point of view. Liking what the person has to say is not really important to me.
criticism social critics
I like Nora Ephron. She wasn't a critic in the strictest sense of the word, but she did a lot of social criticism. She was so funny and so in the right place at the right time.
sad-love gay two
Brokeback Mountain is a sad love story about two people who can't be together, and the reason that they can't be together is because being gay is a stigmatized thing. It would be interesting to have the same movie in which the two guys weren't in the closet and there was no shame about them being gay and they couldn't be together for other reasons. I still feel like we're a long way from that happening.