film assessment Quotes

I think there are just bad films and good films. Period.

Rent Control is not a terrible movie, certainly not for the budget they had. And, again, it's such an '80s kind of thing.

Making judgments on films is in many ways so peculiarly vaporous an occupation that the only question is why, beyond the obvious opportunities for a few lectures fees and a little careerism at a dispiritingly self-limiting level, anyone does it in the first place.

If a movie has three decent scenes and a decent character, I think, 'OK, at least they got that guy right.'

I mean no film is beyond criticism, but I think we've made a very modest movie.

I stopped reading reviews about my own movies. I read stuff about other people's movies.

And yet I think The White Cliffs of Dover one of my best films.

Critics are usually kinder to cheaper movies than to those they perceive to be big Hollywood releases. They cut you a lot more slack if you spend less money, which makes no sense.

I was looking for people who didn't have any preconceptions about films, what I call the "post-rules" generation.

For the film to 'earn' the right to be criticized on a scientific level is a high compliment indeed.

Things come out of nowhere, and you start evaluating the director, the cast, and all those other things going into it.