http://www.indy.com/posts/6527 en-us joe.shearer I agree. There are those times when an article just flows out and find myself chopping a lot of stuff out, but, you're right, I find myself struggling for something great to say about the latest whatever from whomever and you end up with a pile of nothing that no one really wants to read anyway. But in the case of films like "Margot" or some others that fly under the radar, but are very good, I sometimes find myself stretching too hard and trying to get cutesy with my language to get people to see it. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:40:57 -0400 http://www.indy.com/posts/6527#comment_19076 http://www.indy.com/posts/6527#comment_19076 Christopher Lloyd The hardest movies for me to review are the middling ones. It's fairly easy to crystallize what you liked about a film or what you hated. But it's a real challenge to say something compelling about a movie that left you indifferent. There's also a tendency among bad critics to have only intensely favorable or negative opinions. Ansen is one of the best at reviewing the coulda-beens. As someone much smarter than me once said, there are only three kinds of movies: Those that are meant to be good and are; those that are meant to be good and aren't; and those that were never meant to be any good. An astonishing percentage fall into the last category. I mean, do you think the people involved with "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" were thinking to themselves: "My gosh, this one's a keeper! Screw 'The Godfather' -- this is the movie they'll remember in 50 years"? Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:28:39 -0400 http://www.indy.com/posts/6527#comment_19073 http://www.indy.com/posts/6527#comment_19073 joe.shearer I love the contrast of the Beowulf/Margot review. Reading the Margot review especially I see how great a writer I am not compared to the skill he shows, especially in describing Nicole Kidman's performance. I had such a hard time writing a review for Margot because I found it really difficult to pinpoint her character. Ansen effortlessly did it with just a listing of a few adjectives. And he reviewed a film in an entirely different genre, done in a different medium (animation vs. live action) AND found a common link between the two. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:28:16 -0400 http://www.indy.com/posts/6527#comment_19058 http://www.indy.com/posts/6527#comment_19058