A Reluctant Film Critic

<p>A sharp funny and deeply engaging memoir <em>A Reluctant Film Critic</em> traces Gerald Peary's unlikely journey from a bookish movie-obsessed boy in small-town America to one of the country's most distinctive critical voices. Told in vivid fast-moving vignettes it's a story of curiosity rebellion and discovery of a life spent both inside and outside the darkened cinema forever questioning what it means to watch to feel and to judge.</p><p></p><p>Don't think of Gerald Peary as a film critic but rather as a highly singular thinker and writer about cinema. And if he has been branded a contrarian or provocateur he comes by honestly and with a big heart. In this wonderful witty frank memoir Gerry paints a vivid picture of growing up in America as a Jewish Southerner his lifelong passion for movies and his adventures in the film world. I couldn't put it down. - Alexander Payne</p><p></p><p>I've always admired Gerald Peary's boldness as a critic his political savvy deep knowledge of film history and contrarian aesthetic judgment. Over more than fifty years we've also had many spirited disagreements which I value in a critic and friend who as he does teaches me to think in fresh ways. The readers of this lively engaging book will discover the multicultural roots that helped form Peary's provocative insights about life and the movies. - Joseph McBride author of biographies of Frank Capra John Ford and Steven Spielberg</p><p></p><p>Gerald Peary has been a much-published film critic in Cambridge Massachusetts for more than 45 years writing for the <em>Real Paper </em>and <em>Boston Phoenix</em> and now the on-line magazine <em>The Arts Fuse</em>. His articles have appeared in international cinema journals including <em>Film Comment</em> <em>Film Quarterly</em> <em>Sight and Sound</em> <em>Cineaste</em> <em>Positif</em> and<em> The Velvet Light Trap</em>. He is the author or editor of nine books on cinema and the writer-director of three feature documentaries <em>For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism </em>(2009) <em>Archie's Betty</em> (2015) and with Amy Geller <em>The Rabbi Goes West</em> (2019). He has served on film juries around the world including Venice Hong Kong Bangkok Rotterdam Edinburgh Moscow Locarno Buenos Aires. He acted in the 2013 feature film <em>Computer Chess.</em></p>