Janet Maslin

American journalist and critic

Janet Maslin

Born|  (1949-08-12) August 12, 1949 (age 74)

New York City, U.S.

Education| University of Rochester (BA)
Occupation| Journalist
Years active| 1970–present
Employer| The New York Times
Known for| Film and literary criticism
Spouses|

* Jon Landau
* Benjamin Cheever

Children| 2

Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times.[1] She served as a Times film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, Maslin helped found the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. She is president of its board of directors.[2][3]

## Education[edit]

Maslin graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.[4]

## Career[edit]

Maslin began her career as a rock music critic for The Boston Phoenix and became a film editor and critic for that publication. She also worked as a freelancer for Rolling Stone and worked at Newsweek.[5]

Maslin became a film critic for The New York Times in 1977. From December 1, 1994, she replaced Vincent Canby as the chief film critic.[5] Maslin continued to review films for The Times until 1999, when she briefly left the newspaper.[6] Her film criticism career, including her embrace of American independent cinema, is discussed in the documentary For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009). In the documentary, Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum recalls the excitement of having a woman as the lead reviewer at The New York Times. In a 2005 interview with Aaron Aradillas at Rockcritics.com, Maslin explained she quit reviewing films because she experienced burnout, expressing gratitude it ended when it did.[4] Filmmaker Harmony Korine, whose directorial debut feature Gummo (1997) Maslin famously called "worst film of the year",[7][8][9] noted how Maslin stopped working as a movie critic not long after.[10][11]

From 1994 to 2003, Maslin was a frequent guest on Charlie Rose. Overall she made 61 appearances on the program.[12]

From 2000 she worked as a book reviewer for The New York Times; from 2015 as a contributor as opposed to being their full-time critic.[6] As of 2023[update], Maslin continues to review books for the newspaper, albeit sparsely. Her latest[when?] review is for Dennis Lehane's novel Small Mercies, speculating it might be the author's last and concluding with "As epitaphs go, you could do a lot worse."[13] Among her reviews are many enthusiastic discoveries of then-unknown crime writers, the first American assessment of an Elena Ferrante novel, and a 2011 essay on the widowed Joyce Carol Oates's memoir, A Widow's Story, which offended some of Oates's admirers.[14][15]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Maslin, Janet (December 17, 2012). "Janet Maslin's 10 Favorite Books of 2012". The New York Times. p. C35. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
2. ^ Elder, Sean (September 23, 1999). "Maslin Bails, Critics Rail". Salon. Archived from the original on July 31, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
3. ^ Barr, Jeremy (May 19, 2015). "Times book critic Janet Maslin shifts into contributing role". Politico. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
4. ^ a b Aradillas, Aaron. "She's something else. Janet Maslin in a rockcritics.com interview". Rock Critics Archives. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
5. ^ a b "New Assignments for 3 Times Critics". The New York Times. October 27, 1993. p. C18. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
6. ^ a b Barr, Jeremy (May 19, 2015). "Times book critic Janet Maslin shifts into contributing role". Politico.
7. ^ Maslin, Janet (October 17, 1997). "Cats, Grandma and Other Disposables". The New York Times.
8. ^ Keogan, Natalia (October 21, 2022). "Gummo and the Tradition of American Cruelty". Paste.
9. ^ Jenkins, David (January 7, 2016). "What's so great about Harmony Korine's Gummo?". Little White Lies.
10. ^ Baron, Zach (August 23, 2023). "Harmony Korine's Hi-Tech Vision for the Future of Movies". GQ.
11. ^ Schimkowitz, Matt (August 23, 2023). "Harmony Korine is too busy admiring stomachs to direct a script Terrence Malick wrote for him". The A.V. Club.
12. ^ "Janet Maslin". Charlie Rose. Retrieved 2023-08-06.
13. ^ "Recent and archived work by Janet Maslin for The New York Times". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
14. ^ Weinstein, Deb (February 14, 2011). "Janet Maslin vs. Joyce Carol Oates's 'Widow's Story'". Thewire.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
15. ^ "Unethical, Immoral. Crude and Cruel and Unconscionable". Crossing the Border. February 14, 2011. Archived from the original on November 10, 2011. Retrieved 2024-01-26.

## External links[edit]

* Janet Maslin at The New York Times – Archived articles written by Maslin
* Janet Maslin at IMDb
* "Janet Maslin" at Rotten Tomatoes - Includes links to full texts of reviews by Maslin
* Interview with Janet Maslin. The Connection. Broadcast on WBUR (Boston), February 10, 2000. Accessed December 21, 2007. (RealAudio format.)
* Rockcritics.com interview Archived February 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine - May 2005

Media offices

Preceded by

Vincent Canby

|  Chief film critic of The New York Times
1994–1999  | Succeeded by

A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* France
* BnF data
* Israel
* United States
* Czech Republic

Other|

* IdRef