Physical Evidence: Selected Film Criticism

Wesleyan Film

by Kent Jones

The first collection from this distinguished American movie critic

An expert writer and thinker on movie history and directorial style, Kent Jones is among the most notable film critics of his generation. His sharp, informed analyses and cogent assessments of cinema and its practitioners have made him a significant voice both in America and internationally. Jones' inaugural collection brings together the best of his reviews (on films including In the Mood for Love, A History of Violence, and The New World), evaluations of specific filmmakers (Wes Anderson, John Cassavetes, and the Coen brothers), polemics (on summer blockbusters, digital cinema, and Hollywood politics), and appreciations of other film critics. Several of these pieces are published here in English for the first time, having previously appeared only in the French journals Cahiers du Cinéma and Trafic. Physical Evidence is a penetrating and personal examination of contemporary and classic cinema, one that values nothing so much as seeing on the screen the proof―the physical evidence―of the filmmaker's own personal quest.

Genres: Film, Criticism

Hardcover

First published September 28, 2007

Reviews

[Mike O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I may not agree with all of Jones' opinions, I respect his erudition, and find his passion for cinema inspiring. He is a writer who doesn't fall into the usual critical trap of disecting the nuts and bolts of how a thing works, he writes about the total experience of cinema and how it makes him feel and think.

[jorjor wel]

often forgotten amongst the likes of rosenbaum and hoberman, jones offers some potent insight into film that is readily missed in this age of "criticism." there's some funny revealing bits and a deft hand of superiority but it's essentially a great crash course on the lost art of working through a film's magic and the medium's apparatus.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is Kent Jones' only collection of film essays and reviews, but I hope that changes soon. (He has two other books, one about the director Olivier Assayas and the other about Bresson's "L'Argent".) Jones is an uncommonly thoughtful, fair, and curious critic, with a warm, conversational writing style and a clean, efficient way of avoiding rhetoric and fashion and eloquently and directly expressing his ideas and opinions. Unlike the sad majority of film critics, he understands that all the arts influence and inform each other, and he often incorporates music, literature, and painting as reference points and comparisons, which only strengthens his ideas. He's a sharp observer of American movies but is also strong on French, Asian, and Middle Eastern film, and he writes equally well about art films, classic Hollywood, and genre filmmakers (particularly horror and action directors like John Carpenter, Walter Hill, and William Friedkin). The book is divided into five sections, all worth your time: directors, recent films, broader essays about film industry and culture, older films, and film critics. It's time for a second volume.

[Cullen Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

At a book reading, Kent Jones suggested that the problem with contemporary film criticism is that critics are afraid of finding faults in a good movie or accomplishments in a bad movie. Jones' writing is certainly an attempt to remedy these tendencies, though they are not always successful. Sometimes Jones' noble aspiration to show both the "positive" and "negative" comes across as indecisive, as though he's afraid of committing to one viewpoint, or perhaps that he feels every film to be flawed even at the most minute level, and that to admit such flaws is to be more honest about what is seen on screen. Each of these viewpoints could be used to describe various pieces by Jones: his article on John Carpenter asks us to "forget" a wealth of inadequacies in order to appreciate the finer moments of his work; yet in his pieces on Jack Arnold and Allan Dwan he strikes the necessary balance between "pros" and "cons," as each of his observations is rooted in an uncanny insight into films of the period as well as their production methods.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Jones as a critic, his even handed yet personal analysis of film really speaks to me. He is the kind of critic who tells the reader a lot about himself merely by talking the ways in which art moves him. This collection provides a nice mixture of essays on individual films, the entire work of specific directors, and general cultural movements as evidenced by the types of films we view.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a selection of essays from roughly 1995-2005 -- "The Tarantino Decade" as Jones calls it -- written with effete style and academic rigor. Jones has a dizzying amount of cinematic knowledge, so it's especially great when he praises corny masterpieces like John Carpenter's "They Live" or John Millius'"Big Wednesday." Lots of fun.

[michael]

Read this book cover to cover all afternoon today.

Probably the smartest person writing about film right now.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best collections of film writing I own. Kent is a brilliant thinker and writer. I love this book.