A Reluctant Film Critic

Gerald Peary

A sharp, funny, and deeply engaging memoir, A Reluctant Film Critic traces Gerald Peary’s unlikely journey from a bookish, movie-obsessed boy in small-town America to one of the country’s most distinctive critical voices. Told in vivid, fast-moving vignettes, it’s a story of curiosity, rebellion, and discovery—of a life spent both inside and outside the darkened cinema. With a comprehensive career interview with Peary by culture critic Bill Marx.

“Don’t think of Gerald Peary as a film critic, but rather as a highly singular thinker and writer about cinema. And if he has been branded a contrarian or provocateur, he comes by honestly and with a big heart. In this wonderful, witty, frank memoir, Gerry paints a vivid picture of growing up in America as a Jewish Southerner, his lifelong passion for movies and his adventures in the film world. I couldn’t put it down.” — Alexander Payne

“I’ve always admired Gerald Peary’s boldness as a critic, his political savvy, deep knowledge of film history, and contrarian aesthetic judgment. Over more than fifty years we’ve also had many spirited disagreements, which I value in a critic and friend who, as he does, teaches me to think in fresh ways. The readers of this lively, engaging book will discover the cultural roots that helped form Peary’s provocative insights about life and the movies.” — Joseph McBride

Gerald Peary has been a much-published film critic in Cambridge, Massachusetts for more than 45 years, writing for the Real Paper and Boston Phoenix and now the on-line magazine, The Arts Fuse. His articles have appeared in international cinema journals including Film Comment, Film Quarterly, Sight and Sound, Cineaste, Positif, and The Velvet Light Trap. He is the author or editor of nine books on cinema, and the writer-director of three feature documentaries, For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009), Archie’s Betty (2015), and, with Amy Geller, The Rabbi Goes West (2019). He has served on film juries around the world, including Venice, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Rotterdam, Edinburgh, Moscow, Locarno, Buenos Aires. He acted in the 2013 feature film, Computer Chess.