The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits

by Village Voice, Dennis Lim (Editor )

For decades the Village Voice set the benchmark for passionate, critical, and unique film coverage. Including reviews by some of America’s most respected critics, The Village Voice Film Guide compiles spirited landmark reviews of the Voice’s selection of the 150 greatest films ever made. Collecting some of the best writing on film ever put on paper, this is a perfect book for film buffs.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Reference

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2006

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Village Voice, founded in 1955, has always been to "g0-to" source for movie criticism. especially of art or foreign films that may not get much play across the country. It has employed some top drawer critics and often their critiques have "made" a film that might otherwise be ignored. The problem with reviewing a book of movie criticism is that you may not agree with the content since it is so subjective but that doesn't make the book bad; it just sometimes makes you wonder what in the world the writer was thinking when s/he praises a film that you think is a real stinker. As I said, subjective.

The book is filled with short review of 150 films, everything from Peking Opera Blues to Irma Vepp to The Man With The Movie Camera and includes some films that were unfamiliar to me. Some of the reviews were a bit too precious such as "The film has the burnished Naugahyde look of a sunset seen through the window of a House of Pancakes". Or off-putting such as".....is too dense to easily assimilate on a single viewing but not understanding adds to the pleasure" But that doesn't distract from the treasures in this book and it is a fairly enjoyable read for the movie buff.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't normally read film books, but when I do I really go to town. After thinking about how much I need to read some more non-fiction, I finally decided to do the sensible thing and borrow a book of film reviews from a friend because DUH, major cinéphile over here. If I'm not talking about books, I'm talking about film because that's just what I do.

The Village Voice is a weekly tabloid-format newspaper (and website) in New York City that features, amongst other things, film reviews. This book is a collection of various film reviews over the years that range from 1920s Spanish avant-garde surrealist films to... There's Something About Mary. So as you can imagine, there's a vast range of films covered in here.

Although I had seen around 20 or so films reviewed in this book, the vast majority were films that I hadn't seen, and often hadn't even heard of. And boy did it spark my interest. I'm going to have to go back through the book after finishing this review, and make a comprehensive list of all the films I have been encouraged to seek out and watch as a result of reading these reviews.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of the films in this book are very niche, and some of the reviews can come across as incredibly pretentious (I'm looking at you J. Hoberman), but overall this was a great read. It was also incredibly interesting to see some reviews of the same film decades apart, to show how the film had aged.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in film, but with a relatively open mind.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great. Many awesome Hoberman reviews )his Do the Right Thing stands out as classic urgent Voice criticism). Jonas Mekas was a kind of a pre-blogger, able to get into complex ideas in a pargumentative style that's compulsive and pushy , a nice contrast to agile intellects like Hoberman, Dennis Lim and Jessica Winter or the more autobiographical writing of Georgia Brown.

[Directorscut · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ideological essays disguised as movie reviews. A selection of films more concerned with promoting ideology than good films. Avoid like the plague if you don’t want the endings spoiled. You have to be a monumental asshole to spoil the end of a film in a newspaper review.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

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