Online viewing tip. Jami Bernard.

"After 13 years as a film critic with the New York Daily News, we've parted ways. As Dianne Wiest would advise in Bullets Over Broadway, I'll say no more," writes Jami Bernard at her new blog, The Incredible Shrinking Critic, named after her forthcoming book about losing 75 pounds. And here's the viewing tip: Behold the Future of Film Criticism, "a quick look at what movie critics do when they're sans portfolio." The visual consultant is Jamie Stuart, so you know it's going to look sharp.

Meantime, Bernard writes, "The first movie I saw as a civilian is The Break-Up, as depressing a movie-going experience as I've had.... Tell me, what kind of romantic comedy has you rooting for the protagonists to see other people and move on with their lives?"

As it happens, Suzy Hansen is currently defending the film in the New York Observer, arguing that it's not supposed to be the feel-good movie of the year: "When [the relationship] falls apart, it's immature and cliché-ridden and nasty, which seems about right.... the writers are so un-American in their rejection of sentimentality, it almost feels French."

Oddly related in the NYO - Vince Vaughn, weight loss - Sara Vilkomerson spots a trend: "The Hollywood box-office draws have stopped looking like the lithe and graceful Orlando Blooms of the world, delicate and emotive and who might possibly weigh less than an average female fan, and instead now look like guys you can recognize as being from the same planet you inhabit, who eat, drink, and smoke what they want, pack on the pounds and still get to regularly bed skinny actresses who can't remember what carbs taste like. What's more, the women don't mind a bit - in fact, some prefer it."

Posted by dwhudson at June 22, 2006 6:22 AM