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| Ten Minutes with Ken Womack |
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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine then, the difficulty of taking a motion picture, with thousands of frames of eye-catching images, and condensing it into half that number. Yet that’s all the Altoona Mirror gives Ken Womack to review movies for the newspaper. The Ivy Leaf spent a few moments with Womack to talk about movies.
How did you begin writing reviews for
the Altoona Mirror?
I had written a guest column for the Altoona
Mirror on popular culture, and my wife
suggested that I inquire about writing reviews
for the newspaper. I enjoy reading movie
reviews and thinking about the mechanics of
that kind of criticism. I like the intellectual
challenge of writing the reviews, and, besides,
it’s been a lot of fun.
How long have you been writing for
the Mirror?
I’ve been writing the reviews for five years. The
newspaper likes the idea of involving people
from the community - especially from the
College. I think they also enjoy reaping the
benefits of free labor!
Do you have a favorite reviewer?
I like the work of Anthony Lane and David
Denby of The New Yorker - although,
interestingly, I rarely agree with their positions.
They tend to be rather narrow - elitist even -
about the kinds of movies that they’re willing to
accept. I particularly like Roger Ebert because
he thinks about issues involving genre when he
reviews a movie. I try to do this as well. For
example, I’ll think, “Okay, this is a western, so
I’m not going to expect it to be a drama,
comedy, or anything else but a western.” Or
“this is a summer comedy, so it’s not going to
vie for Best Picture, so I can’t rate it under
those more lofty conditions.” What I’ve found is
that the really bad movies are often trying to
engage with too many genres at the same time.
What have been your favorite movies
since becoming a critic?
I loved Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind. I have particularly enjoyed
watching Clint Eastwood’s work as a director
over the past several years in films like Mystic
River and Million Dollar Baby.
And your least favorites?
City by the Sea with Robert De Niro was the one
I disliked the most. It’s the movie where he
plays a cop, and he goes back and forth from
Long Island to Manhattan. All that running
around for a whodunit that wasn’t worth the
effort in the first place!
Were there movies that you didn’t
like, but were loved by other critics
and/or fans?
Finding Neverland would be a good example. But
I gave it a strong review anyway because I
sensed that moviegoers should give it a shot
despite my lack of enthusiasm. I gave Phantom of
the Opera a good review as well because people
applauded afterwards - they obviously felt a
connection. If it’s well-made and I can tell that
other people are connecting with it in the
audience, I feel like I shouldn’t distort what
people may think about the movie with my
opinion. I feel that part of my service is to show
people why they might like a film—even if that
particular film may not necessarily be my cup of
tea. If it is well-constructed, well-acted, and
admirably written, it will possess some appeal
for somebody somewhere.
There are some movies that I probably should
have really taken to task. Mona Lisa Smile was
one that drove me absolutely nuts because it
purports to be a strong feminist film about a
woman who wins a position at Wellesley
College and attempts to improve its social and
ethical climate. And yet, when the going got
tough, she ran for the proverbial
hills when her character might
have been truly heroic by staying
to fight the good fight.
What movies surprised you?
Which ones did you go
expecting to hate, but then
loved instead?
Spanglish looked really daffy to me
in the trailers, and yet I ended up
seeing it twice. I love those times
when I’m really surprised. It
doesn’t happen very often because
movie trailers today are far too
efficient at letting you know exactly
what they’re all about in advance.
It’s an odd sort of buyer-beware
consumerism.
Do you get much response
from your movie reviews?
I get a lot of cards and E-mails
from Mirror readers, which is very
gratifying because I know that they
are out there listening. On a few
occasions, readers have pointed out
mistakes that I’ve made. For
example, one reader wrote about
an error I made when reviewing
The Last Samurai. I looked back at my review,
and, sure enough, she was right. They’re a
pretty sharp audience, and they inspire me to
work harder.
What were the best movies of 2004?
Million Dollar Baby was a great piece of
filmmaking. The movie really knew how to be
subtle and not oversell itself and its very
powerful conclusion. Sideways was perhaps the
smartest screenplay of the year. It actually
merged different genres and worked because
the transitions were seamless.
What do you think about the new
animated films?
It’s scary, actually. Some of the acting in
animated films is better than the live-action
movies. Right now, the most inventive genre
involves animated features such as The Incredibles
and Shrek. Perhaps their popularity will force the
people who make live-action movies to come up
with more original ideas and stop pandering so
much to the lowest-common denominator in their
audience. It’s a shame, really, when animated
characters end up giving better acting
performances than their human counterparts.
Editor’s Note: Womack is an associate professor of English at Penn State Altoona. His movie reviews will be
anthologized in The Mammoth Book of Movies, to be published this fall by Pennsylvania’s own Mammoth Books.
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