When the Critic is Criticized

What is it they say? Two is a coincidence but three's a trend? In that case we need one more filmmaker to strike out at a movie critic this week for the Newsweek pieces to start rolling. M. Night Shyamalan, bitter over the way "The Village" was thrashed by critics in '04, wrote a stoogelike movie critic figure into his new film, "Lady in the Water," and now Kevin Smith is up in arms over Joel Siegel's walkout of "Clerks II."

I agree with Smith's assertion that since a critic's job is so easy -- all we've gotta do is sit there, watch the film, then spit out a review afterward -- it's inexcusable for one to walk out of a movie midway through. I also think it shows thin skin by the writer/director to take a walkout so hard and lash out in public. Smith may just be gunning for publicity here, but I think that if you're a filmmaker, the worst thing you can do is let a critic know that he's getting you down. The best way to defend against unduly harsh criticism is to ignore it; don't give the attacker the pleasure of knowing his hit stings. The same goes for Shyamalan. He certainly wasn't crying for blood after the scribes praised "The Sixth Sense" all the way to an Oscar nomination.

The shocker of shockers for me was that "Lady," which I dreaded after the lifeless horror that was Shyamalan's last film, turned out to be much better than "Clerks II," the movie I was most excited about this summer. I only know this to be true because unlike Siegel, I actually stay through the movies all the way through.