A Critic Turned Inside Out

Featured Journal June 18, 2015

1975

I feel I owe it to you, my loyal readers, to apologize for not being able to review the major new releases like Pixar’s Inside Out. I’m afraid the viral infection that has attacked my system is still doing its dirty work and is taking its sweet time going away; in spite of the vigilance of my doctors and a lot of pharmaceuticals. The result is an overall fatigue which makes it difficult to focus on anything for long.

I’ve only left the house a couple of times—to host last weekend’s Musicians at Play concert in Santa Monica, which I didn’t want to miss, and to record this week’s Maltin on Movies podcast, a special Father’s Day edition with my daughter Jessie joining Baron Vaughn and me.

Courtesy of Wolfpop

Each of these efforts has taken its toll and sends me back to sleep—although there is something lovely about a long midday nap.

I’m doing my best to find material to post here on the site but it pains me to miss out on the high-profile movies that are opening this month. I hope to get back up to speed sometime soon, although my doctors keep telling me that recovery is going to be a lengthy process.

Thanks for all of your messages and good wishes. I’m down but I’m not out, so stay tuned.

Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin is one of the world’s most respected film critics and historians. He is best known for his widely-used reference work Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide and its companion volume Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide, now in its third edition, as well as his thirty-year run on television’s Entertainment Tonight. He teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and appears regularly on Reelz Channel and Turner Classic Movies. His books include The 151 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, The Great Movie Comedians, The Disney Films, The Art of the Cinematographer, Movie Comedy Teams, The Great American Broadcast, and Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, is a voting member of the National Film Registry, and was appointed by the Librarian of Congress to sit on the Board of Directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation. He hosted and co-produced the popular Walt Disney Treasures DVD series and has appeared on innumerable television programs and documentaries. He has been the recipient of awards from the American Society of Cinematographers, the Telluride Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and San Diego’s Comic-Con International. Perhaps the pinnacle of his career was his appearance in a now-classic episode of South Park. (Or was it Carmela consulting his Movie Guide on an episode of The Sopranos?) He holds court at leonardmaltin.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook; you can also listen to him on his weekly podcast: Maltin on Movies. — [Artwork by Drew Friedman]