Everyone is entitled to their opinions, even when they make you want to scream shut up.

The recentBatman v Supermanbacklash showed how powerful this can be.

This isnt entirely true and it might be better if it were.

But this doesnt turn out to be the case.

People dont move from film to film commentary, unless they are a guest contributor writing as an expert.

What usually happens is a film reviewer occasionally thinks he knows enough to make a great film.

Sometimes they only get one project made.

But they rarely go back to reviewing other artists work after theyve dipped their toes in the creative waters.

Maybe it is because they faced the poison pens of their peers and found an antidote.

He started chatting about movies onBack Rowand the BBC 6 Music podcastAdam & Joe.

He co-wrote a draft of the screenplay forAnt-Manwith Wright, Adam McKay, and Paul Rudd.

JJ Abrams wanted him to directStar Trek 3.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert had been the film critic for theChicago Sun-Timessince 1967.

At the time, that is.

Now, of course critics acknowledge thatBeyond the Valley of The Dollshas a certain cult genius behind it.

It came in at number 87 on theVillage Voice2001 list of the 100 Greatest Films of the Century.

Roger Ebert co-wrote the screenplay for the 1970 Russ Meyer filmBeyond the Valley of the Dolls.

The film was an emotional sequel to the 1967 cult classicValley of the Dolls.

It followed an all-girl rock band who get sucked into the decadence of the Hollywood rock scene.

Ebert and the king of cheapie horror worked together on a few projects.

Ebert also co-wrote the script for the Sex Pistols movieWho Killed Bambi?with Malcolm McLaren.

Ebert had much more success on the small screen.

The Directors Guild of America made Ebert an honorary life member on January 31, 2009.

Ebert published his last review in theChicago Sun-Timeson April 6, 2013.

Paul D. Zimmerman

Martin Scorsese saw the value in hiring writers who knew how to pick apart a film.

Paul D. Zimmerman was a movie reviewer forNewsweekand wrote for the educational seriesSesame Street.

This film is his best critique.

He also wrote the 1979 Italian comedy filmLovers and Liars.

Zimmerman also wrote the unproduced Adolph Hitler mea culpa comedyBack Again.

Besides making his bones in film, Zimmerman walked the walk in life.

Jay Cocks

Jay Cocks was the lead critic forTimemagazine in the 1970s.

Cocks counseled Stanley Kubrick on both2001: A Space OdysseyandEyes Wide Shut.

The critic even reviewed his wife before he married her.

He publicly swore that he didnt give her a good review just to meet her.

Cocks began writing the screenplay for the 2002 filmGangs of New Yorkin 1976, which won Best Original Screenplay.

Agee loved silent films and wrote movingly on the stories told by the images captured by the camera.

His screenplays allowed the camera to breathe, and freed the directors to fill the screens with atmosphere.

Agee wroteThe Night of the Hunter(1955), the only film Charles Laughton ever directed.

It is very telling how the two artists went against expectations to bring out the murky suspense.

Agee, the screenwriter, populated the pages with long spaces of empty canvass.

He played in the shadows with paper outlines.

The actor as prop.

Filmmaking distilled to its purest form.

Agee posthumously won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for his novelA Death in the Family.

Nugent loved some of those movies, Stage CoachandThe Grapes of Wrath.

Others, likeThe Hunchback of Notre Dame, he ravaged.

But whether he liked a film or not he understood them.

His poison-tipped pen could leak better movies.

The palettes for Fords films were as large as motion pictures allowed.

New York City born Frank Stanley Nugent wrote 21 screenplays.

Nugent was a news reporter before he started writing reviews in 1934.

He kept that up until 1940.

Nugent wrote the Ford Westerns3 Godfathers,She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,Wagon Master, andThe Searchers.

He had the idea to balance this against the hot-blooded, too-cool-for-school younger warrior.

As a long-form critic, Bogdanovich wrote essential books on John Ford and Howard Hawks.

Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson won supporting actor Oscars.

Bogdanovich channeled both Howard Hawks and Bugs Bunny for the screwball comedyWhats Up, Doc?

(1972), which starred Barbra Streisand and Ryan ONeal.

The first movie Bogdanovich delivered wasPaper Moonin 1973.

He made his first film, the 8 minute shortUne visite, in 1954.

WatchingThe 400 Blows(1959), you’re able to see Truffauts life become art.

Godard founded the film journalGazette du cinemaand then wrote commentary for Andre Bazins magazineCahiers du cinemain January 1952.

Godard believed cinema was as important as bread.

The movie gave Jack Palance the chance to roll his eyes at venerated Austrian director Fritz Lang.

The lovers luxuriously lose their lifes purpose in the confines of their apartment.

He didnt think much of it.

His 1988 filmPatty Hearstis intimately filmed and yet masterfully detached.

Schrader got his B.A.

at Calvin College, where he wrote film reviews for theCalvin College Chimes.

Schrader believed that all of cinema could be found in Jean RenoirsThe Rules of the Game.

Schrader first turned his scholarly cinematic talents to screenplays.

In 1974, Schrader co-wrote the Japanese crime filmThe Yakuzawith his brother Leonard.

The film was directed by Sydney Pollack and starred Robert Mitchum.

He also directed the biographical filmAuto Focus(2002) andLight Sleeper.

Many filmmakers return to the pages of film commentary magazines as guests to pass on what theyve learned.

Film reviewers and critics love film.

Why else would they spend their lives writing about the art?