Movie Cricket

Anne Thompson has stirred up a little hornet's nest over on her IndieWire blog, Thompson on Hollywood, with some sharp barbs regarding the situation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Thompson (pictured) reported last week's news that LA Weekly film critic Scott Foundas is leaving that job to become associate program director for Lincoln Center — a job that will include making an imprint on the New York Film Festival.

In her blog post, Thompson wrote two statements that most riled up the readers. One was that Foundas' hire away from a print publication showed that "film criticism is a dying art." The other was this: "Unless Foundas screws up (as one-time heir apparent Kent Jones did), down the line he could be in a position to run the New York Film Festival."

People writing on the comments thread to Thompson's post took issue with that characterization of Jones, and of Thompson's dismissive assessment of film criticism.

What makes it interesting is the A-list quality of the commenters: New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, former Premiere critic Glenn Kenny, prominent free-lance critic Amy Taubin, former Entertainment Weekly writer Tim Appelo, RogerEbert.com editor Jim Emerson, and even Foundas and Jones.

Two things to learn from all this: Don't invite Dargis (who worked at LA Weekly before Foundas) to lunch with her old bosses at Village Voice Media, and don't expect Foundas or Jones to break bread with Thompson anytime soon.