Anthony Lane

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Anthony Lane (born 1962) has been a film reviewer on The New Yorker magazine since 1993. His writing has been frequently praised for its style and wit. (John Updike blurbed that he was "the fizziest critic around" and meant it as a compliment. Malcolm Gladwell has opined that he is "funnier than the funniest critics and smarter than the smartest critics.")

Lane is married to the British tabloid columnist and chick-lit writer Allison Pearson.^[1] They live in Cambridge, England and have two young children.

1 Education and early career
2 At The New Yorker
3 Examples of Lane's Wit
- 3.1 Professional Recognition
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Education and early career

Lane graduated with a degree in English from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he also did graduate work on the poet T. S. Eliot. After graduating, he worked as a freelance writer and as a book reviewer on The Independent, where he was appointed deputy literary editor in 1989. In 1991, Lane was appointed film critic for the Independent on Sunday, thus adding regular film criticism to his repertoire.

[edit] At The New Yorker

In 1993, Lane was asked by The New Yorker's then editor, Tina Brown, to join that publication as a film critic. Lane now shares the role with The New Yorker's other film critic, David Denby. He also contributes longer pieces on film subjects, such as Alfred Hitchcock and Buster Keaton, as well as on literature and the arts.

A collection of 140 of his The New Yorker reviews, essays, and profiles has been published under the title Nobody's Perfect (2002), a reference to the final line in the film Some Like it Hot. A profile on the film's director, Billy Wilder, ends the book.

[edit] Examples of Lane's Wit

From "Best-Sellers II" (an essay on best-selling books of 1945):

"In the top ten books I found not a single joke; wartime fiction lived under a frivolity curfew, a gag blackout. There was also an easygoing acceptance of euphemism. Whenever sex reared its head, it had to keep its hat on. The strict erogenous-zoning laws of the time meant that physical response had to occur at least two limbs away from the intended center of operations..."

From an essay on poet A.E. Housman:

"It is true that the ideal Housman reader would have the Authorized Version of the Bible, especially the Book of Isaiah, the Psalms, and Ecclesiastes, at his or her fingertips, plus a heavy grounding in Milton and, for good measure, all of Horace and Heine; but we regret that the ideal reader is unavailable at this time, and thus the field is left open to nonprofessionals--to those who have just enough time to wonder why a poem that appears, in paraphrase, to be full of the joys of spring should sound, with its long autumnal vowels, like a lament..."

From an essay on P.G. Wodehouse:

“Can one, after too much Wodehouse, take anything seriously? And, when something incorrigibly serious does come along, are we Wodehouseans equipped to recognise it as such?”^[2]

From a review of "Star Wars: Episode III" that appeared in The New Yorker:

"The general opinion of 'Revenge of the Sith' seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, 'The Phantom Menace' and 'Attack of the Clones.' True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion."

[edit] Professional Recognition

Anthony Lane was awarded the 2001 National Magazine Award for Reviews & Criticism, for three of his articles:

The Maria Problem (February 14)
The Eye of the Land (March 13)
The Light Side of the Moon (April 10)

Lane has also been nominated for National Magazine Awards on a number of other occasions, including

1996 award for Special Interest, for the article Look Back in Hunger (December 18)
2000 award for Reviews & Criticism, for the articles
- The Man in the Mirror (August 9)
- In Love with Fear (August 16)
- Waugh in Pieces (October 4)