As you might know if you follow me on Twitter, or follow other film writers on Twitter, myself and a whole bunch of other freelance writers for the MSN website were informed today that soon there was no longer going to be any work for us at the site. (Here is an odd news item concerning something like this thing.) I send condolences to colleagues Kim Morgan, James Rocchi, Kate Erbland, Don Kaye…and there are others I’m not sure I can mention. I thank all the people who’ve been kind on Twitter and via e‑mail and in comments on this blog. I am, as they say, “confident” that I will “land on my feet” and all that, but the immediate experience of this condition, unfortunately, feels rather akin to having received a sharp kick in the middle of the forehead. And I had wanted to get so much more work done on my second novel this evening. Have I mentioned that I’m trying to be a novelist now? I’ll keep you posted, promise. In the meantime enjoy this mordant bit of musical entertainment from a fellow whose current state reminds us all that, yes, it could be worse. And incidentally, I SHALL be contributing reviews (and even a listicle thingie) to MSN through the end of September. Thanks and stay tuned.
Yarbles
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Very sorry to hear, Glenn. Their loss. Hope you find something else soon.
you remain the greatest film critic with two first names
bless you
Like everybody says, their loss. (Doesn’t make it any less true.)
Looking forward to seeing your byline in a new home, wherever it might be.
That sucks. Good luck!!!
Keep writing. We’ll keep reading. Assuming you post it somewhere for us. And don’t charge too much money.
Very sad news and very indicative of the general state of film criticism/reviewing not just in the US, but all around the world.
I sincerely hope something good will come along for you soon.
Thanks for everything; looking forward to much more in the future!
“Very sad news and very indicative of the general state of film criticism/reviewing not just in the US, but all around the world.”
While here in the UK, Jonathan Romney has been judged surplus to requirements at The Independent, more than a decade after The Guardian similarly gave him the boot.
Very sorry to hear this, Glenn. Since learning of your work about a year or so ago, I’ve truly enjoyed your offerings. They’ve been insightful, entertaining and (I hesitate to use the term) educational.
I guess we chalk this up to 1) the holy sanctity of the profit motive, regardless of the quality of the product, and 2) the “democratization” of expertise. There’s not much to be done about the first, but I believe it’s been informed by a misapprehension of the 2nd.
Since visiting your site and reading your MSN reviews, I’ve experienced the strange and dismaying phenomenon of realizing the depth and breadth of what I didn’t know that I didn’t know about movies. While I think there’s room to approach cinema cold and evaluate a movie-going experience strictly on its own terms, there’s clearly something lost when one can’t place a film into cinematic context. And who provides that context? People like Glenn.
MSN and others misapprehend the idea of expertise when it comes to movies, conflating “opinion” and “expertise” as if they’re one and the same. Knowledge – both historical and technical – gets left out of the conversation or at the very least marginalized. This is a pity and a loss. I’ve learned so much from both you and those who comment here due to the knowledge you all possess.
Sorry this is so long-winded. Carry on!
Wow. I’m very sad about this, Glenn. But I hope this means greater things are in store for you, the sooner the better.
Sorry to hear this, Glenn. I have always cherished your reviews and love your writing. I hope something better comes along for you. You deserve it.
Really sorry to hear that, Glenn. Hope you find something else as soon as possible. In the meantime, anxious to continue reading your posts on this site.
Huh. Do they know you were the only reason I ever went to MSN? You were a value-add.
This is terrible news, Glenn. I’m grateful for your voice no matter where it appears, but it was especially nice to have you writing for a general interest website, where perhaps you could surprise and enlighten people who aren’t into the film blogosphere, but potentially could be. I wish you all the best going forward.
Sorry to hear, Glenn. With a talent like yours I believe you’ll find other gigs soon, though my opinion doesn’t make it any easier. More focus on the novels, I say! Best of luck and I’ll be reading wherever that may be.
Bummer, Glenn. You were the best thing about the MSN site, and I wish you and the others a quick return to other work. (Selfishly, I’m hoping this might mean more blog postings here.)
I’m so bummed to hear this news. But glad to hear about the progress on the novels.
Your observant and witty reviews are often one of the highlights of my week and the only reason I have for going to MSN. The field needs more critics with your sincerity, openness, and enthusiasm. I hope you find a better venue for your great writing soon.
Sending very best wishes your way, and I very much look forward to the novel when it appears. And in re: the previous thread, you’ve always struck me as someone who’s more than comfortable enough with himself to use whatever words he wants regardless of any self-appointed watchdogs…I think you should use “icky” and “rapey” as much or as little as you damn want.
Ahhhhh hell. That’s really lousy.
Well, as a reader, let me say I’ve got no objection to a very prominently-placed tip jar and regular mentions of exactly where it is.
(which is no substitute for actually getting paid, I know, but it’s at least something those of us who love your writing can do)
Please set up that tip jar!
MSN is getting out of the original content business entirely.
http://jimromenesko.com/2013/09/12/msn-com-says-its-freelance-budget-has-gone-away-entirely/
“Huh. Do they know you were the only reason I ever went to MSN? You were a value-add.”
This.
Sorry to read that and I wish you the best with what you have to do to keep on writing Good Words.
Well that sucks. Pushing positive thoughts your way, my friend.
Man, that sucks. I’m sorry to hear it, Glenn, but I hope things come together to work out well both for you and the writing, be it novelistic, critical or otherwise.
Going to chime in with all the others that you and the rest of those great writers were the only reason to go onto MSN. Hell, I even put up with those awkward, click-through top 50 lists because the writing was worth it. Sad to see you go but excited to see where you’ll end up next. Best wishes.
We will follow you wherever you go, GK.
MSN, like so many other outlets, wants brain-dead happy talk and quote-whore competitions instead of witty, genuinely insightful ideas about film.
You provided them reliably, so evidently this makes you expendable, like so many others who did the same before the ax fell on them, too.
Well, it’s our and most of all your loss, but also MSN’s, though they’re without a doubt too clueless to realize or care about it. So what possible reason could anyone with half a brain have for paying the slightest attention to MSN any longer, except as an example of social pathology?
Best of luck for a durable new berth where your gifts will be respected long-term.
Poor Lex G! Glenn will recognize the Vaughn Meader/Lenny Bruce ref.
Glenn, I’m bummed to hear this, but I avidly add my voice to those who cry “their loss.” Keep writing, we’ll keep reading. Screw ’em.
So, essentially, you are collateral damage of the Great Ballmer Defenestration of 2013. Hopefully he will share his severance pay with all the MSN writers.
Assuming you went down with the ship at Première as well, it speaks well of you that you don’t get fired. You just end up writing for publications that go out of business…
Good luck. Even if MSN did pay, you were too good for them.
“Huh. Do they know you were the only reason I ever went to MSN?”
I stopped looking at Première’s website when they dropped Glenn. Now I’ll stop looking at MSN.
Heard today that NPR is cutting its staff by 10 percent. Bad news all around.
As a reader & fan, I just happily made a contribution to the “tip jar” (for those asking, it’s discretely located on the right-hand side between “Archives” & “Recent Comments”). It’s a small gesture, but figure it’s the least I could do b/c this blog most definitely keeps me entertained! Keep up the great work, Glenn…it’s appreciated & valued.
I’ll add my condolences. As another man of a certain age with similar recent experience with the publishing industry, I probably have some sense of how you feel. If it makes you feel any better, which I trust it doesn’t, some executive making high six or seven figures probably got a 42 percent raise and a bonus for having the courage to stop paying people. That’s the way of it all over, but in publishing it’s even more insidious as it is particularly the actual content creators who aren’t being paid. But unlike being laid off from a manufacturing job, content creators are still expected to work. As one of the previous commenters noted, you keep writing, you can bet we’ll keep reading. Paying? Well, good luck with that. Like the publishing companies, we’ll pay the people who market and sell your work, the ones who keep the books and do the hiring of and for the sales people, and especially those who administer the enterprise, but not those who actually create the content that they so lucratively sell.
Speaking of Jonathan Franzen’s Guardian essay on Kraus, this quote pretty much sums up the world that came to be.
“The giver loses, the recipients are impoverished, and the middlemen make a living …”
I’d amend it to “damned good living” or “ostentatious living” or “thieving living” or something along those lines, but I all those adjectives would make me too much a romantic, eh.
Anyway, best of luck in this new phase, especially for the new novel. Will it be a free download from Amazon or some Google appendage? That’s a good way to get noticed. Or so I’m told.
Hey Glenn, we never met but it was my great pleasure to be associated with you at MSN. The home video column was better because I was sending readers to your reviews.
Rotten news. Your kind are becoming more of an endangered species and your habitat diminishing more rapidly than anything in the Borneo rainforest. What next? Anthony Lane being put out to pasture from The New Yorker? I really enjoy reading your reviews and writing as much as I did Danny Peary’s (way back in my youth). It’s getting harder and harder to find authoritative film criticism anywhere, both in print media and on the web. Your interview on The Cinephiliacs podcast just over a year ago demonstrates the difference between your experience and gift of articulation and the lack of from almost every subsequent guest – who seem unable to string together a sentence without saying “kinda”, “like”, “you know”. It’s ironic that the interest or need for film criticism hasn’t diminished with the proliferation of streaming services, unlike the music industry, which has disappeared down the toilet. You know what they replaced my subscription to Première magazine with when that died? US Weekly Magazine: Celebrity News and Celebrity Gossip. Aaargh. I found your Tip Jar after a wild and desperate search.
While I’m sincerely sorry that you’ve lost your position and the pool seems to be drying up rather quickly (no doubt another effect of global warming,) I can’t help but recommend viewing George Stevens’s best film and in particular a short classic dance number performed therein by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire to a tune by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. Perhaps if you pretended that you didn’t know how to write your chances might be better of securing a truly long term situation in this day and age.
@Elizabeth, thanks for pointing me in the direction of the tip jar. I always really enjoy your stuff, Glenn.
Shite & onions, hard out here for a Chief FIlm Critic – genuinely sorry to hear this, G. Their freaking loss. And ours. And in order to ensure those losses don’t keep piling up, +1,000,000,000 (or thereabouts) in re: the tip jar, I’m ’bout it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRdmm5zFO3M
Astaire and Rogers are OK, but few things pick me up like a vintage Hal Roach comedy – especially when Thelma Todd and Anita Garvin show up.
Dale Wittig said: “Perhaps if you pretended that you didn’t know how to write your chances might be better of securing a truly long term situation in this day and age.”
Yes, tell prospective employers that Michael Bay and Adam Sandler are the greatest living film figures, and that all movies made before 1986 suck. That might help with today’s editors.
Jar duly tipped. Now, how about reviewing some lowly DVD-only releases once in a while?
“What next? Anthony Lane being put out to pasture from The New Yorker?”
I may be a minority of one, but that would be okay with me. Let people who actually like movies write about them.
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