James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967)[1] is an American film critic and former engineer. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ReelViews. Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of reviews of movies on DVD and video. He is also a fantasy novelist, publishing a trilogy from 2015 through 2016 known as The Last Whisper of the Gods.
James Berardinelli | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 25, 1967 New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | Cherry Hill High School East |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania (BS, MS) |
| Period | 1992–present |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Subject | Film |
| Spouse | Sheryl (m. 2004) |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| reelviews | |
Personal life
Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey.[2] When he was nine, his family moved to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where he attended Cherry Hill High School East.[2][3] Later he moved to Piscataway.[4]
He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 to 1990, obtaining both a bachelor's and master's degree in electrical engineering.[2] After graduating he worked for Bellcore Company, now Telcordia Technologies. He worked during the next 15 years "in a variety of fields, including fiber optics, video testing, and software systems."[2]
Berardinelli has categorized himself as an agnostic and a libertarian.[3] He resides in Mount Laurel, New Jersey with his wife, Sheryl, whom he met through his website.[3][5][6][7] They have two children: a son born in May 2010, and a daughter born in November 2019.[8][9]
Career
Starting in January 1992, Berardinelli began writing movie reviews, his first being a review of the 1991 drama Grand Canyon.[10] His first review published to the Internet was of the 1992 drama Scent of a Woman, which was posted both to Usenet and his Colossus Inc-hosted[11] website, ReelViews.[12]
Roger Ebert referred to Berardinelli as "the best of the Web-based critics" in 2001,[13] and wrote a foreword for the 2003 book, Reelviews, a collection of Berardinelli's reviews.[14] Berardinelli is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.[15][16]
In January 2004,[17] he began his blog ReelThoughts, by which time his reviews could attract as many as 100,000 readers,[18] up from around 1,400 weekly readers in 1997.[19] In August 2006,[20] the site moved to ReelViews.net, a domain Berardinelli had originally registered by late 2000.[21]
In September 2013, Berardinelli announced that he had been working on a trilogy of fantasy novels entitled The Last Whisper of the Gods.[22] The first book was published in November 2015, the second was released in January 2016, and the third in March 2016.[23]
Berardinelli appears as a guest on the pop-culture radio program Fictional Frontiers every two weeks.[24]
Annual film rankings
- 1993: Schindler's List[25]
- 1994: Pulp Fiction[26]
- 1995: Cry, The Beloved Country[27]
- 1996: Hamlet[28]
- 1997: The Sweet Hereafter[29]
- 1998: Saving Private Ryan[30]
- 1999: The War Zone[31]
- Best of 1990s : Schindler's List[32]
- 2000: Requiem for a Dream[33]
- 2001: Memento[34]
- 2002: Minority Report[35]
- 2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King[36]
- 2004: Maria Full of Grace[37]
- 2005: Munich[38]
- 2006: The Departed[39]
- 2007: The Lives of Others[40]
- 2008: The Dark Knight[41]
- 2009: Avatar[42]
- Best of 2000s: The Lord of the Rings[43]
- 2010: The King's Speech[44]
- 2011: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo[45]
- 2012: Looper[46]
- 2013: Before Midnight[47]
- 2014: Interstellar[48]
- 2015: The Hateful Eight[49]
- 2016: Arrival[50]
- 2017: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri[51]
- 2018: Shoplifters[52]
- 2019: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood[53]
- Best of 2010s: Before Midnight[54]
- 2020: Tenet[55]
- 2021: The Father[56]
- 2022 : Avatar: The Way of Water[57]
Bibliography
- Berardinelli, James (2003) ReelViews : The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video, ISBN 1-932112-06-5
- Berardinelli, James (2005) ReelViews 2: The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video, 2005 Edition, ISBN 1-932112-40-5
- Berardinelli, James (2015) The Last Whisper of the Gods, ASIN B-016IWS-UN-M
- Berardinelli, James (2016) The Curse of the Gift, ASIN B-019CPR-EH-K
- Berardinelli, James (2016) The Shadow of the Otherverse, ASIN B-01BRSW-VH-S
- Berardinelli, James (2017) The Lingering Haze, ISBN 1-520762-02-X
References
External links
- ReelViews.net (official site)