 |
 |
|
|
|
Mike Canning
Mike Canning saw his first movie at the age of four at the Grand Theater in Fargo, North Dakota, and he has never lost his childlike fascination for the "flickers." He has been the regular movie reviewer for The Hill Rag newspaper on Capital Hill in Washington, DC since August 1993. He is also a freelance writer on film, politics, and public affairs. His website, www.mikesflix.com, contains his current reviews, an archive of past reviews, and essays on a variety of movie-related topics.
Combining his interests in film and national politics, Canning has written on the depiction of Washington, DC, and the US Congress in American feature films. He presented a formal paper—"The Hill on Film"—on the latter subject at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. He has also contributed film articles and literary pieces to Films in Review, The Hill, The Washington Review, and the Foreign Service Journal.
For 10 years, 1999 to 2009, he was a programmer and commentator for "Films on the Hill," a series of classic movies presented at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop in Washington.
Mike also has a particular interest in independent and foreign language films, on which he has written regularly, including a study examining the presence of foreign films on American screens. This bent nicely matches his core reading audience of aware, literate adults who hardly need his opinion on something like Spiderman 6.
Prior to his reviewing gig (which he realizes is the "Best Job in the World"), Mike served for 28 years as a press and cultural officer with the United States Information Agency (USIA) overseas, serving in eight countries on four continents before retiring in 1993. In several of those countries he organized thematic programs based on American classic motion pictures. From his service overseas, he developed a particular interest in the cinema of Germany, Italy, Iran, and Latin America.
His reviewing tenets favor literate, believable scripts fashioned into coherent, compelling stories, peopled by competent, credible actors who are directed with pace and weight appropriate to the material. All the other accoutrement of filmmaking—cinematography, production design, lighting, music, effects, etc.—all are finally secondary to good scripts, acting, and direction. Period.
Mike is also very proud of having been a film mentor for his two daughters, who—from early ages—went with Dad to witness some of filmdom's greatest, like Laurel and Hardy, John Ford, the Marx Brothers, Disney, and Fred Astaire, perform on the big screen. He hopes to eventually do the same for his several grandchildren.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
©2012 The Washington DC
Area Film Critics Association a production |
|
|
|