By Debbie Schlussel
As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t posted anything since early this morning. That’s because I’ve been at a special day-long screening of five movies, put on by movie studios for members of the Detroit Film Critics Society.
My cousin Ira describes the state of eating too much as a “food coma.” Well, I’m in a movie coma. After watching movies from literally 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with a half hour break for lunch and five minutes between the rest of the movies, I’m burnt out. It’s not healthy. I feel gross. But what am I gonna do to relax–watch a movie? Yaaaawn. One movie in a day is fun. Five movies in a day is work.
On the flip side, I’m not whining. There’s no other way for us to see all the movies in time to vote on them. We gotta do it this way. I realize if this is the worst of my problems (it isn’t), I’m batting 1,000 . . . and that plenty of Americans are actually doing real, hard work, and I have it easy. And I really appreciate all the movie studio reps and, especially, our Detroit Film Critic Society volunteer executive director, Ruth Daniels (Vice President of a major movie theater chain), who put this confab together for us.

The movies I screened today included “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Defiance,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Seven Pounds,” and “The Reader.” I’m prohibited from posting a review of any of these until they debut in theaters. But I only really liked one of these (and disliked three of them). I’m sure you can guess which one.
And there are at least two more screenings, tomorrow (though I’ll be posting throughout the day, tomorrow).
You may think it’s cool being a movie critic. But it isn’t that cool. Trust me, I sit through hours and hours of crap–valuable hours of my life I’ll never get back.
Now, I’m getting DVDs every single day from movie studios wanting me to vote for their movie. Tomorrow night, we submit nominations for our Detroit Film Critics Society awards for 2008. (I’ll let you know my pics.) Every major city has one of these, and every studio wants their movie and respective actors to win. Most of the DVDs are of movies I hated, and some of the movie studios tell you, “Ya better destroy this copy or else . . . .” But there are a few gems, like “Gran Torino.” No, I didn’t want or need the “Sex & The City Movie” DVD, but the studio wants me to vote for these hags for something, so they sent me one. They ain’t gettin’ my vote.
Trust me, it’s no big whoop. More than anything, I’m just tired. Tired of movies . . . especially today.
For now, here are the trailers of the movies I sat through, today:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button–guy born old gets younger and younger . . .

Defiance–depicts the real-life Jewish Bielski Brothers militia that fought back against the Nazis . . .

Revolutionary Road–middle-class couple in the ’50s goes through strife . . .

Seven Pounds–IRS agent goes out of his way to help good people in need . . .

The Reader–15-year-old is seduced by older woman, then years later learns she was a Nazi . . .