Subject: Irony

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on November 3, 2024 @ tonymacklin.net.

My email response to Rotten Tomatoes after their team concluded that my current reviews do not meet their criteria for Tomatometer approval, their removing my reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, and their no longer considering me a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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I've waited a few days since I received your email stating that I'm "no longer considered a Tomato-approved critic."

I'm sure you don't know my history and experience and don't care.

But it's very ironic, since I heartily promoted rotten tomatoes before it was accepted. No newspaper published anything from rotten tomatoes. I'm sure most of your staff doesn't even know that.

I don't like to promote myself and hate committees, so this is not an effort to get back in your good graces.

I just want to say a few things.

I'm sure I have had more experience and more knowledge than any member of your "team." Today things have changed, so Trumpian groups change standards that make them more important. Self-importance becomes the standard. Facts are irrelevant.

I was on the set of Hitch's last film. Most of your committee probably was still in middle school. I was one of only two academics in America that was on the decadal poll of Sight & Sound, the British journal. Much of that was due to the fact that I produced and edited a national film journal, Film Heritage, for a dozen years.

Film was taught in very few colleges in those days. I was friends with the top critics: Stanley Kaufmann, Dwight MacDonald, John Simon, Andy Sarris, his wife Molly Haskell, et al.

Your miopic team's opinion on me just seems ignorant. I'm pleased that John Wayne sent me a signed photo and he wrote on it, "You caught me in print as no one has. Thanks, Duke." I had lunch with Duke at his dining table in his home.

I have positive correspondence from Stanley Kubrick, Bob Altman called me one of the top critics in the world, Frank Capra called me "a genius," but he does occasionally overstate. Kate Hepburn called me at home and growled at me for still being in bed. I once stood next to Ava Gardner. Still feel the pheromones.

Your team of wanna-bes have a job, because of the work of those who influenced me. I had a book published -- Voices From the Set -- with interviews with Wayne, Heston, Hitch, Marty Scorsese, Peckinpah, Edith Head -- who's she? -- Verna Fields -- who's she? Leigh Bracket -- who's she?, et al.

So, as you can see, I'm hardly appropriate for your Tomato-approved gang.

Tony