Although we never had the pleasure of meeting larger-than-life film writer Anderson Jones, the community of critics here at RT must share love for the journalist who passed away tragically last week at the tender age of 38.
Photo credit: Film Stew
The former Detroit Free Press, Philadelphia Daily News, and (more recently) Film Stew writer suffered a fatal heart attack last Friday in Los Angeles. Jones was attending a press screening of "A Mighty Heart" at the ArcLight theater at the time.
Jones, known as Andy to friends, was a lifelong movie lover whose big personality made him a perfect fit for E! Online‘s brash, snarky style and led naturally to many television appearances providing red carpet commentary at awards shows like the Emmys, the SAG Awards, and the Golden Globes. He also provided observations on E! shows like "True Hollywood Story" and worked at various points in his career in print and online entertainment journalism. Read some of Jones’ reviews here.
Friends of Jones in the online community expressed shock at his passing and posted heartfelt remembrances of junkets and screenings shared; see CHUD’s Mark Wheaton for a nice post on "one of the coolest, most fun, most entertaining, most outspoken, most outrageous reporters on the west coast junket circuit."
Nathan Rabin of The Onion A.V. Club also remembered Jones, with whom he appeared on the AMC television show "Movie Club With John Ridley," as a dynamic spirit that few who met him might forget. "Anderson died as he lived," Rabin writes. "Watching movies and making a spectacle of himself. That’s why I was profoundly irritated that the headline for Variety’s write-up of his death reads "Critic Suffers Heart Attack During Screening". He wasn’t any mere critic, Variety. He was Anderson f***ing Jones, dammit."
Film Stew’s Richard Horgan has posted links to some of the the "S.W.A.G. (See Where Andy Goes") column Jones contributed to the site back in 2004. Check out at least one of his archived reports for a hilarious snapshot of life on the LA junket circuit, full of vibrant observations from screenings, parties, and celeb run-ins.
Steven Horn, Publisher of IGN’s Entertainment Group, used to work with Andy on the circuit in LA and sent the following comment: "Andy was one of my favorite people who roamed the screenings, events, and junkets here in Los Angeles. His love of movies (Andy would never call them films) is well known. His razor sharp tongue, biting wit, and enormous vitality made any event or screening he attended an affair that may have been many things, but they never boring. He would sit behind me in theaters and whisper comments from behind which would annoy the crap out of me at the time even though I’d sometimes be shaking with laughter. Though it has been a while since we spoke, we did recently reconnect and I was looking forward to seeing him again. I know that as he goes off into whatever is next in store after this world for us all, he’s going big. Nobody puts Andy in a corner."
Herb Kane of Critic Doctor seemed to enjoy interviewing Jones back in 2001 for his critic-scrutinizing column; check out his interview for bits on Jones’ career trajectory through broadcasting into the online world, what he thought makes a good film critic, and lots of interesting thoughts on the world of film criticism. "The thing about movie criticism, and it has to be said," Jones says, "There aren’t enough women reviewing movies, there aren’t enough black people reviewing movies, there aren’t enough people of different ages reviewing movies."
