criticism news roundup

Irin Carmon at Jezebel declares, “Roger Ebert Doesn’t Give A Shit, And I Love Him For It,” and praises how the new openness in the critic’s writing means “we’ve gotten the chance to know Ebert a little better, unleashed on every topic in film and beyond, full of righteous anger and thoughtfulness alike — and freaking hilarious.”

Leah Sandals at unedit my heart asks “A Plague of Bloggers? Really?” and pushes back against a detractor of online film criticism: “[A]ny argument that posits ‘bloggers’ vs ‘critics’ seems kind of old and tired, and frankly I’m surprised to see it even being tossed out as a helpful dividing line in 2010.”