Entertainment Weekly fires Owen Gleiberman | Update: he's now at BBC.com

[Fancyarcher]

I guess this is what happens when you give Grown Ups 2 a positive review. 

[Fancyarcher]

On a serious note though, this is pretty sad. EW's new critic isn't very good. 

Edited April 4, 2014 by Fancyarcher

[Water Bottle]

If anyone is ever looking for some good writing on the internet then give Grantland a try. They have some really good pieces on there whether it's sports or pop culture. And their movie and tv critics Wesley Morris and Andy Greenwald are two of the best

 

The AV Club is my go-to site.

[Dementeleus]

The Dissolve is great too... It's run by a bunch of ex-AV Club people.

[Empire]

I still have a subscription to it. However, it is about to run out and I doubt I will be renewing it. 

[DAR]

The AV Club is my go-to site.

AV Club is solid

[MrPink]

If anyone is ever looking for some good writing on the internet then give Grantland a try. They have some really good pieces on there whether it's sports or pop culture. And their movie and tv critics Wesley Morris and Andy Greenwald are two of the best

 

Funny. I read Grantland a lot but I find myself disagreeing with Wesley Morris and Andy Greenwald often. Well written stuff, but their opinions are ones I can't find myself aligning with. Morris seems like such a grouch and Greenwald has this weird dislike for True Detective and to a degree, Mad Men Season 6 that I never got over.

Edited April 4, 2014 by MrPink

[JohnnyGossamer]

Along with David Edelstein and Stephanie Zacharek, Owen Gleiberman was one of my go to critics. I first became interested in box office numbers reading EW as a kid. And, as others have written, AV Club, The Dissolve and Grantland have journalists with sharp views and critics that write prose more so than generic copy. I'm sure OG will land a new gig soon. He's respected and talented. Real drag to wake up today and notice this thread.

Edited April 4, 2014 by JohnnyGossamer

[Ezen Baklattan]

I liked EW as a teenager, but maybe it's growing maturity/declining quality that made me completely lose interest in it.

[The Futurist]

When you trash the Queen, that s what happens.

Karma they call it.

[Blankments]

That new business model is the definition of stupid

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

A little late to the party on this one. I have only recently started reading Owen's reviews, and he struck me as surprisingly brilliant, while also concise (something I struggle with as a writer). It's saddening that they've gotten rid of him. Hopefully, he finds a new home.As for other critics talked about on here: Wesley Morris deserves praise. 

[Darth Homer]

So after killing attention spans, publishing, music and movies the internet has now killed film criticism? Damn you internet! This is why we can't have nice things.

[lilmac]

 

... yep, another significant critic gets let go. What's even more frustrating is that EW -- just prior to canning Gleiberman -- announced that it was basically not pay writers anymore. It would aggregate blogs posts from its contributors, who will "do it for the prestige".

 

That sucks.

 

I didn't always agree with Gleiberman's reviews, of course -- who agrees with a critic 100% of the time? But he was always interesting to read, and he (and Lisa Schwartzbaum (who was let go from EQ a year or two ago) helped put the magazine on the map. They were its movie critics from its inception in the late 80s.

 

Matt Zoller Seitz (at RogerEbert.com) has a write-up about the situation:

 

http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/for-the-love-of-it-notes-on-the-decline-of-entertainment-weekly-the-firing-of-owen-gleiberman-and-the-ongoing-end-of-an-era

 

And here's a long interview with Gleiberman from back in 2004. If you read about his early days as a critic, you'll find he's basically like all of us. We like to think of critics as these snobby elitists who look down on popular stuff, but the fact of it is that many of them -- like us -- are just movies nerds at heart.

 

http://rockcriticsarchives.com/interviews/owengleiberman/owengleiberman.html

 

Q: What movie-going experience made you think, "I want to write about movies?"

 

A: The closest I came to having that lightning-bolt moment was probably seeing Carrie the day it opened in 1976. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving my freshman year of college. I was home with nothing to do, so I went to the mall to see a movie. I'd never even heard of Brian De Palma, but something in Carrie just spoke to me. It was such a gleefully sadistic yet tragic fairy tale, just so extreme in its trickery and emotions, that it got under my skin in a way that no movie ever had. Especially that shocker of an ending, with Carrie's hand poking out of the grave. I literally jumped out of my seat with terror, and so did half the audience. When the movie was over, I couldn't stop thinking, or talking, about it. It was as if I somehow had to prolong the high of watching Carrie by explaining the experience to myself.

 

 

 

Wow you're right.  They are very much like us.  

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

So after killing attention spans, publishing, music and movies the internet has now killed film criticism? Damn you internet! This is why we can't have nice things.

I wouldn't call film criticism dead. There's a lot of great sites out there. I think, however, that it isn't valued as much as it should be. And that is the sad part. I also think that while film criticism is being devalued, film itself is also no longer as highly valued when it comes to being an art form. I think a lot of people see films as pure entertainment, and care little about approaching them with a critical eye. So we have a terrible situation where film is being less valued and the people who can show us the value in films are no longer being valued. 

[PDC1987]

EW needs to fire everyone and start form scratch. Awful publication.

[grim22]

I recently started a free subscription to EW (via mags for miles). The articles are surprisingly light reading and seem like studio publicists wrote half of them.

[Dementeleus]

An update (of sorts): looks like Gleiberman has found a new gig with BBC.com:

 

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140718-is-woody-allens-latest-magical

[CoolioD1]

An update (of sorts): looks like Gleiberman has found a new gig with BBC.com:

 

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140718-is-woody-allens-latest-magical

I'm not allowed to read that because I live in the UK. wtf bbc?

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

An update (of sorts): looks like Gleiberman has found a new gig with BBC.com:

 

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140718-is-woody-allens-latest-magical

Wow, that's a huge step up from EW.