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From James Agee's committed liberalism to Pauline Kael's passionate advocacy, film critics have served as privileged exemplars of the viewing experience. Representing both their times and the publications they work for, critics show us the “complex and contradictory” rules that govern the
“consumption of culture”—or more simply put, how and why we watch films.1 If You Ask Me, a recent collection of film reviews, celebrates today's most exuberantly subversive critic—Libby Gelman-Waxner. While better-known critics squeeze in sound bites of analysis between clips on television, Libby's work has appeared exclusively in Premiere magazine (for reasons I shall discuss later). Self-tided “America's Most Beloved and Irresponsible Film Critic,” Gelman-Waxner is above all a critic who delves unashamedly into the rhapsodic glories of fandom while gleefully trashing standard critical criteria and any pretense of critical distance.
Her grasp of auteurism is distinctly askew. She discusses Woody Allen's work in terms of girlfriends (“Such a Nice Boy”) and the films of director Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction) in terms of hair: “I ask you, can anything top a classic like Flashdance, the movie diat really began the loose perm?” (1). Her knowledge of the film industry is used primarily to whet barbs as sharp as salon-styled nails. When she discusses the stars of Young Guns, she notes, “I know I'm not supposed to call them the Brat Pack, because it degrades their work in teen-vampire movies” (28). She describes Sharon Stone as “a woman … who's had cameras in places where most of us barely have husbands” (232). Patriotism itself is channeled through pop-cult: “The Bodyguard made me proud to hail from the USA: What other country can spend millions to make a movie about how dangerous it is to win Best Actress?” (212).
All approaches are secondary to the pure erotic thrill of encountering a movie star. “All I can say is: I love movies and sometimes I even love films, but above all, I always