Gerald Peary's documentary on the history of film criticism in America, For the Love of Movies, is deeply disappointing. Not only is it a cheerless film (it moans on and on about how the profession is in decline, the profession's happy days are over and done, the profession has lost its soul), but it fails to get to the actual matter of film criticism, which is not about reviewing films but the writing of film reviews. What makes, say, Elvis Mitchell, J. Hoberman, and Roger Ebert great critics (all are interviewed in this documentary) is, first and foremost, they are great writers. It is this (the art of letters) that separates a film critic from a film buff. In this profession, film knowledge is secondary, due to the simple fact that it alone cannot penetrate the object—the movie—in the way that a creative command of the language can. Because this understanding is lacking in this documentary, one has no idea what makes a critic special from any another person who happens to watch a lot of movies.

Here is Hoberman on one of the greatest films of the previous decade, Silent Light: "The upright farmer Johan (Cornelio Wall Fehr), son of a preacher and father of six, is involved in and tormented by an adulterous relationship with the no-less-virtuous Marianne (Maria Pankratz). This affair, which is really a triangle carried on with the unhappy knowledge of his wife, Esther (Miriam Toews), not to mention the seeming awareness of half their insular community, ultimately upends the laws of the universe. The most startling thing about Stellet Licht is its bid for greatness." No amount of film knowledge could produce the wealth of insights that are revealed by Hoberman's exquisite prose; no amount of knowledge can extract such riches ("upends the laws of the universe") from the depths of the movie. If the documentary had been about the ultimate aspect of the art, the gift of writing, then it would have had something worth celebrating and championing. As it is, all is dull and drab—because for Peary, film criticism is all about reviewing films. Northwest Film Forum, Thurs Feb 18 at 8 pm.