Name: Cole Smithey
Publication: ColeSmithey.com and over 50 national, international, regional and online outlets
Age: 44
Hometown: Richmond, Virginia
Years reviewing film: 11 years
Film critics often get the reputation of being a stodgy lot, but New York critic Cole Smithey is anything but. The outspoken writer may even be the only working critic who’s also been a drummer in a rock ‘n’ roll band.
Smithey, who self-publishes his nationally-syndicated film reviews, interviews, and video blogs at ColeSmithey.com, unabashedly dropped out of college before getting his degree. (“College,” he serenely states, “is for suckers.”) A lifelong artsy kid, he bounced around the entertainment industry pursuing varied interests for years: playing drums for the Rockin’ Dogs in San Diego; working as an actor in San Francisco; temping for a studio in New York City. In 1997 he began his career as a professional critic covering films great and small, and he hasn’t looked back since.
Why and how did you become a critic?
Cole Smithey: I was working as an actor in San Francisco-doing mainly industrial work, and picked up a copy of the UK’s Sight and Sound magazine on my way to work for my talent agent Belinda Irons at Top Talent Agency. I was 32 and had read probably fewer than three film reviews in my life. But at the moment of reading the S&S synopsis/review format, a light bulb went on, and I knew what I wanted to do as a career. I did a workshop class with Bay Guardian Arts writer Susan Gerhard (one of my all-time favorite critics — track down her review of Breaking the Waves if you want to read an example of great modern film writing.) I aced her terrific course and decided to move to New York to become a film critic. My friend Ted Rall had been bugging me for years to move to New York City, and gave me a ton of good advice. I worked as a temp at Miramax, and would head over to the Angelica cinema every Friday night and go between movies, so I could write three or four capsule reviews for my Independent Weekly (Raleigh-Durham, NC) Sunday night deadline. After nearly a year of writing strictly capsule reviews, I branched out into writing long reviews. I think Little Soldiers was my first syndicated long review. The first review I ever wrote was for Trainspotting, which I loved. The now-defunct Tacoma Reporter was the first paper to run my long reviews, along with the Colorado Springs Independent.
Fill in the blank: “If I wasn’t a professional film critic, I’d be a…
CS: Full-time Jazz guitarist.
What is your favorite film?
CS: Bertolucci‘s 1900.
Who is your favorite director?
CS: Luis Bunuel — the Master.
What’s the worst movie you’ve ever seen, and why?
CS: Battlefield Earth. Here is a movie so boring, pretentious, and long that looking at your watch is a lot more entertaining. The fact that it’s based on a book by L. Ron Hubbard just puts the icing on the cake of awfulness.
What other film critics/bloggers/entertainment journalists do you read regularly?
CS: Roger Ebert, Glenn Kenny, Michael Sragow, Tony Scott, Owen Gleiberman. I still look at Pauline Kael’s work too.
Certain critics like Ebert and Kael are name brands; what do you think their secret was?
CS: I think in the first place, they’re very, very accomplished and polished writers. They really know where the verbs and commas go; they’re such great writers, technically. Beyond that they have so much passion for film and for watching movies — you know, a good film critic is just a gore hound, you’re just a movie slut. I’ll watch anything. Put it on a screen. And both of those people are like that. So that comes through and what you end up with is this really shockingly bawdy and candid and funny sensibility from those guys. Because if you’re that egalitarian about movies, you can’t help but be saturated in all these different ideas and cultures in a way, you know, you’re just kind of goopy with humanitarian thought. I think a running theme in all the best movies is that they have a strong thread of humanitarian value. So you try and see everything on an equal basis.
What does a film need to achieve to earn a perfect rating from Cole Smithey?
CS: It needs to have what I call, epic social poetry, and be told in a cinematic way that touches you in your head, heart, loins, and toes. I very rarely give any movie an A+. Elem Klimov‘s Come and See is an A+, and so is Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. A Clockwork Orange, The 400 Blows, The Godfather, A Woman Under the Influence, and The Conformist — those are all A+ films. Oh, and Ace in the Hole, Salo, Matewan, Psycho and The Rules of the Game.
Epic social poetry. I like that a lot. But I notice on your list there’s not a lot of recent films…
CS: I know, that’s true. The Aviator, I think is an A+ movie. I really love that movie, I just think Cate Blanchett is so amazing. And Leonardo di Caprio really surprised me playing Howard Hughes. So that’s a movie I’d give an A+ to. Also, I think that Martin Scorsese is the best American filmmaker that we have.
Really? You’ve seen Salo and you’d give it an A+?
CS: Yeah. It’s a very dangerous movie. It’s very controversial, rightfully so. I saw it at the Ken cinema in San Diego when I was 21, and they gave out barf bags! I think it’s the only time I’ve been to a movie where they were passing out barf bags when you went in. And…you know, it’s a very extreme film about a very extreme subject. Its backbone is connected to literature; it’s about this thing that really did happen in an atmosphere of Fascism, so everything is politically charged as much as it’s sexually charged. And it’s also connected to Abu Ghraib; if you watch Salo today in the context of Abu Ghraib, it’s exactly the same! And that’s what I mean about epic social poetry. It’s all there, it’s so interwoven and it’s so strong, it’s so powerful, it really is more than you could expect a movie to be.
Do you think most American moviegoers are ready and receptive to that sort of movie?
CS: I like what Michael Haneke said about Funny Games; he said, “You’ll come to this movie if you need it, and if you don’t you’ll walk out.” I like that. We’re all responsible people.
Do you enjoy the group atmosphere of going to screenings?
CS: The whole collective experience is overrated. I was at a [press] screening for Chicago 10, and this guy comes and sits down next to me and takes a cell phone call in the middle of the movie. And I just turn to him and I say, “You…are…insufferable. And you know that I know that you know that I know just how insufferable you really are.”
That’s awesome. That said, what is the state of current film criticism?
CS: There seem to be a lot more film critics these days, but I think the ratio of insightful, articulate, and passionate critics is about the same as it’s ever been.
What’s the biggest misconception about film critics?
CS: That we’re all former porn stars scratching to make an honest living off of Hollywood.
L.A. has Hollywood; what kind of movie town is New York?
CS: It’s a town where you can walk down the street from your apartment and have immediate access to more than a dozen pictures. There’s some kind of film festival going on nearly 365 days a year.
It’s a place where you constantly see film crews shooting TV and big features, and it’s a city where you walk past movie stars on the street. I think my favorite celebrity sighting was seeing Sidney Poitier on East 87th street near Park Avenue. I greeted him and he gave me the biggest, most generous smile — all class.
What are you doing when not thinking about, talking about, and watching movies?
CS: Taking out the trash, feeding my cat Elise, watering the plants, vacuuming, going swimming, playing guitar with my combo–mainly enjoying a great life with my wonderful girlfriend of five years, Katherine. Good restaurants are a weakness. Keen’s is the best steakhouse in New York, Peasant is great, and Sfoglia is fun. The Blind Tiger in the West Village has the best beer in town.
What word or phrase do you over-use?
CS: “Be that as it may.” I’m also big on “thank you.”
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
CS: I wanted to be a detective and solve mysteries. I wanted to be a drummer — did that. I also wanted to be an actor — did that too.
What is your most common concession stand purchase?
CS: Oh, I think it’s the most popular one: popcorn.
What has been your most bizarre movie-going experience?
CS: Well, I’ve had a few, like the time a young couple was copulating a few seats over from me during a French film at the IFC cinema on 6th Avenue. But a more shocking event happened at a screening I attended for Wim Wenders’ 2001 movie The Million Dollar Hotel (a pretty crappy movie). I was in a small screening room on 7th Avenue near 49th street, and at some point a little more than half way through, a guy got up and ran full speed across the floor in front of the screen before smashing into the wall and falling down. I don’t know if the movie drove him crazy, or if he suffered a nervous breakdown, or if he was making some abstract form of performance art commentary on the quality of the picture. It was funny, weird, and cathartic all at the same time. It made the film a lot more entertaining. Maybe he was hired to do that. I don’t know.
Read more of Smithey’s work at ColeSmithey.com.
