Huston, we have a problem…
Somebody help me out here and explain what exactly the following passage, taken from an e-newsletter issued on Sunday by The Avon Theatre‘s Skip Huston, is actually saying:
“Take a look at what my favorite local film critic, Chuck Koplinski, has to say about [the Ryan Reynolds movie DEFINITELY, MAYBE] below … Indeed, Chuck and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on certain movies, but he is really the only totally qualified person I have found writing about movies in Central Illinois!”
Oh? Really. Is that because Koplinski’s positive reviews happen to coincide with whatever the Head Honcho has booked at the moment? It’s interesting that the Skipster persists on quoting Koplinski, who admittedly loves his movie history and can write an inspired review when the moment strikes him, while not citing the quote source. To the best of my knowledge, C-U’s long-standing “indie” reviewer isn’t carried by the Decatur press, so he’s arguably an unknown to the Avon faithful except when name-dropped in cases like this.
Stripping away the Head Honcho hyperbole, I am not particularly happy about Huston’s claim, especially since the aforementioned Avon faithful are bound to believe what he says. I honesty think he is singling out Koplinski from the pack of area movie critics, as in “those who review movies playing in town this week for a local publication or Web site,” which doesn’t bother me because I function outside of that camp. I do take issue with the seeming absoluteness of that final statement, which would apparently disqualify the long-standing body of work by folks like Edwin Jahiel or Marty McKee or Dan Craft or Richard Leskosky or Tim Cain or, yes indeed, yours truly.
I thereby issue an open invitation to Huston, whom I do respect, to provide our readers with a detailed description of what it takes to be “totally qualified to write about movies in Central Illinois.” Our Letters to the Editor page would love to accomodate a response.
~ Jason Pankoke