TV and film critic Andrew Johnston (long with Time Out New York, more recently a contributor at The House Next Door) died over the weekend at age 40, after a battle with cancer. I didn’t know Andrew personally, but I knew his writing through his Mad Men recaps at The House, which this season I began religiously checking every Sunday night after watching each new episode twice in a row. Now House Next Door creator Matt Zoller Seitz has published a tribute to Johnston, which is a must-read whether you’re familiar with his criticism or not.
Two things pop out: first, Johnston leaves behind a legacy of supporting other film and media writers, most notably by helping them get jobs. As Seitz writes,
He believed in talent and originality and singularity of artistic expression, and he dedicated his professional and personal life to seeking out those qualities, nurturing them and doing all he could to help anyone who exemplified them find an audience…Many, many more working critics have their own versions of these anecdotes. The all end the same way: Andrew gave me my start.
And second, if as a member of the critics community Johnston was active in nurturing underdogs, as a critic he did the same. Seitz details Johnston’s fight, as a member of the exclusive New York Film Critics Circle, to push to have The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King recognized by the older-skewing, arguably elitist group as the Best Picture of its year. He succeeded, and it was a victory for more than that specific film:
Andrew considered it the award not just a deserved accolade for a mammoth and unexpectedly well-executed project, but a bouquet tossed to fantasy and science fiction buffs whose enthusiasms were more often mocked by the critical establishment. The NYFCC award paved the way for Return of the King to sweep the Oscars that year, and for other critics to proclaim their love of the trilogy openly, without the usual qualifiers.
You can read Seitz’s full piece here.
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