Critics Sometimes Act Like Big Babies

There’s quite the kerfluffle brewing about reviews of the American version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” which doesn’t hit theaters until Dec 21. The New York Film Critics were shown it early, with the proviso that they would not review it until it opened, because they wanted to be the first of many critics’ groups to announce their favorite films (and because they’re big babies). Never mind that their early vote made no sense because there was still more than a month left in the year and because they would not be able to see many year-end movies before their vote, including “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” and the new “Sherlock Holmes” sequel. Now, David Denby has violated that agreement by publishing a (mostly favorable) review of “Girl” in the New Yorker. So he’s maybe banned from future advance screenings and the “Girl” studio is miffed and he’s doing a very bad job of pretending that he had no idea he was in the wrong, as indicated by this email exchange:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/david-denby-girl-with-dragon-tattoo-ban-scott-rudin-269456

Here is the email exchange between Denby and the film’s producer:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/exclusive-scott-rudin-replies-to-david-denbys-embargo-break-of-dragon-tattoo-in-the-new-yorker

PS. I have not seen “Girl” yet and I pinky-swear not to review it until it opens.