The End Of Cultural Elitism
Neal Gabler, author of one of my favorite books of Hollywood history, “An Empire of Their Own,” has written a yawny piece about “the end of cultural elitism.” He observes, “No longer does the New York Times or The New Yorker or Time anoint the books we should be reading, the movies and TV shows we should be watching, the music we should be listening to. A populist aggregating website like Rotten Tomatoes that awards fresh or rotten tomatoes to movies, or Ain’t It Cool News, which preempts most mainstream film criticism by reporting on movies first, probably has more power than all the tonier critics combined.” Dear Mr. Gabler: people have been saying these things for years now. As a critic myself, I welcome the fact that reviewers no longer have much commercial impact. We can now do what we’re supposed to do: provide insights, not Consumer Reports summaries.
