devin faraci Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Regular Cinematical readers will remember that I've famously said I can never watch Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust thank to violence it commits against animals, but I have definitely seen my share of gross, weird, and deeply disturbing movies. Until recently, the most f*cked up thing I've ever watched is probably Jorg Buttgereit's 1987 film Nekromantik, which climaxes – literally – with a guy stabbing himself to death as he ejaculates blood. But Sunday's offerings at Screamfest offered a new contender in this dubious competition to show audiences the depths of human depravity: specifically, The Human Centipede is precisely the kind of cult sensation that earns immortality on the merits of its gobsmacking levels of gore, despite the fact that all in all it's really not a very good film.

Dieter Laser stars as Dr. Heiter, a reclusive German surgeon who specializes in separating conjoined twins. Pining for the loss of his beloved 3-dog – in fact, rottweilers that he surgically attached end-to-end – Heiter recruits a series of unwitting victims, including a trucker, two American tourists (Ashley C. Williams and Ashlynn Yennie), and a Japanese playboy (Akihiro Kitamura), for his latest experiment. But when his victims give him more trouble than he expects – including unwanted attention from the authorities - Dr. Heiter is forced to decide whether to abandon his latest project, or protect it from the outside world – with their and his very lives, if necessary.

"I believe that children are our future
(Thank you)
Teach them well and let them lead the way..."
-Randy Watson (Eddie Murphy), Coming to America

It might be presumptuous for someone as young as I am to offer up words of wisdom to any fledgling film critics out there, but in an age where print critics are only dwindling in number and online reviewers are subjected to constantly shifting standards of the industry, the prospect of constructive advice is my effort to provide something that wasn't necessarily there when I started in the field. Just because anyone can start their own review site doesn't mean that they should, but hopefully, some of the following tips will help encourage those of you still determined to give this a go to hold yourself and your work to a higher standard.

We at Cinematical have had our share of feuds with publicists just like every other site, but we've always been on good terms with Fox publicist Tiffany Chen. I know her to be nothing less than a professional and someone who is responsive and helpful and a generally friendly person, and I was quite surprised to see the Chud.com post by Devin Faraci that accused her of acting unprofessional and rude at last night's Silver Surfer screening, which was by all accounts, a circus. Cinematical's managing editor Erik was there, and nearly walked out after having to sit next to a homeless person, among other things.

If you want the specific list of charges Devin hurls at Tiffany, you can read it here. Tiffany has chosen to release a response through us, which I'm going to begin quoting liberally from in a second, but first I just have to point out that this wouldn't be the first time Devin has gotten it wrong in the area of personal relations. I once went to a Fox Atomic event where, after a long night prior, I chose to sit quietly and sip some coffee and watch the proceedings. When I got home that night, several people pointed me to a similar rant by Devin that accused me of being unfriendly towards him. It ended with some kind of vague threat that I was going to be ostracized from the online film community because of it. I don't know what else to say about that.

Here is Tiffany, giving some background about last night's screening. "I am always really careful about RSVPs because I want to avoid situations like this. There is nothing worse than showing up for a screening/event and your name is not on the list. I read what Devin wrote on the site and the e-mail correspondance tells you exactly what happened. After I wrote back and told him about the screening, I asked him if he could make it with a guest. I got no reply that he was even coming -- with or without a guest. I send out dozens of invitations everyday and always need my contacts to reply back to let me know if they will be there. Most of them are really good about that, but sometimes people forget -- it happens. If I assume that everyone who received an invitation would be there, I would have a list three times as long. Carol Cundiff and Harvey Karten did send out invitations for this particular promo screening (not all-media) They always say that in order to attend, you must RSVP through me. This is especially why."

I write for a lot of different movie sites, which means I'm often seen quoting Variety and/or The Hollywood Reporter. They're the real big boys where movie news is concerned, and I'm of the opinion that they're reputable, reliable and entirely indispensable resources.

Working in the blogworld, you learn pretty darn fast how to behave like a professional: You thank your tipsters, you bring your own slant to the news items, and you always cite your sources. Like ... always.

So imagine the irony that arises when one considers that Variety might be guilty of cribbing from the internet ... and not even citing its source! Case in point: A few days back I read and enjoyed a very amusing report from Devin Faraci at CHUD.com; it was the story of a movie called Zyzzyx Road and how it grossed a whole $30 at the box office, and so I wrote my own slant on the geeky little newsbit. Then today I'm flipping through Variety.com and find the exact same story, but there was something missing. Ah yes, it was the fair credit due to Devin for digging up the stupid-ass Zyzzyx Road story in the first place! (Somehow I doubt that Variety's Dade Hayes just happened to stumble across this semi-story on his own, but if that is the case, then consider this my formal (albeit skeptical) apology.)

Plus there's the issue of the words "not a typo." Mr. Faraci is none too happy about the incident, and I happen to think he makes a few pretty good points. I mean, I know we bloggers rely on Variety a whole helluva lot, but would it kill 'em to throw some fair credit to us unwashed onliners?

(For the confused, just read the following pages in chronological order: #1, #2, #3 and #4.)