cover image Short Orders: Writings on Film

Short Orders: Writings on Film

Jonathan Romney. Serpent's Tail, $16 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-85242-512-8

""To state the obvious first: Crimson Tide is a submarine movie, and therefore entirely about penises."" Although that's the funniest single line in this collection of pieces written for the Guardian and a variety of other British film publications between 1990 and 1996, it only half-summarizes Romney's virtues. The kind of critic who views his work less as a chance to show off than as an opportunity to invite readers into a discussion of broader concerns--the future of cinema, film as art, the ways technology is changing moviemaking--Romney watches everything from Jurassic Park to Estonian animation without a hint of snobbery. He assimilates difficult theoretical work as effortlessly as he drops pop-cultural references: ""now, however, so much theory seems to be taken for granted that the most intelligent horror films could have been assembled by marketing executives with Freud in one pocket and Fangoria magazine in the other."" Most important, like Pauline Kael at her best, Romney rises to meet aesthetic excellence but also understands the satisfactions of explosions and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Stimulating and politically acute, his criticism will send readers to the video store to seek out even the films he dislikes, watch, and decide for themselves. (Jan.)