RECENT COLUMNS

Oscar Picks & Predictions 2002
My yearly rant and stabs in the dark
2001: The Year In Movies
Some (late) thoughts on the year's best and worst
So Much To Say
Ketchup
Shut the Fuck UP!
On "A.I.", "Baby Boy", and "Kiss of the Dragon"
My War With Navarro
On "Shrek" and "Moulin Rouge"
Dry Spell
On "Pearl Harbor" and "Memento"
Back To Work
On "Swordfish" and "Evolution"

Archives

The Original Columns
From 1998: Reviews for "SEEN"
Lola and the Joy of Cinema
From August 1999: On "Run Lola Run"
Why "Fight Club" Fails
From 10/25/99
Scorsese's "Bringing Out The Dead"
From 10/25/99
Why Are The Bad Movies Making Money?
From 11/1/99: On "Double Jeopardy" and "The Best Man"
Hitting The Mark
From 11/8/99: On "Being John Malkovich" and "The Insider"
In Praise of Sarah Polley
From 11/22/99: On Sarah Polley and "Guinevere"
New Perspectives
From 12/1/99: On "Dogma" and "The Limey"
It's Not That I Like Every Movie I See...
From 12/13/99: On "The Green Mile", "Toy Story 2", and "The Bone Collector"
Summer Wrap-Up
From 9/12/00: On "Hollow Man" and "Whipped"
Hurray For Fall
From 9/28/00: On "The Cell" and "Nurse Betty"
The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly
From 11/13/00: On "Pay It Forward" and "Almost Famous"
Heroes and Villains
From 11/26/00: On "Unbreakable" and "Bamboozled"
Escaping The Escapists
From 1/03/01: On "Requiem for a Dream" and "Proof of Life"
What People Want
On "What Women Want", "Cast Away", and "The Family Man"
2000: The Year In Movies
Some year-end notes
On The 2001 Oscar Nominations
Well, it's... on the 2001 Oscar nominations
2001 Picks & Predictions
See how right and wrong I was about the 2001 Oscars

FOURTH ROW CENTER ONLINE

Hello there! Jason Bailey here, author of "Fourth Row Center", a monthly film criticism column for the Midwestern journal "SEEN".

Why is it called "Fourth Row Center", you ask? Well, you probably don't. It's pretty easy to figure out. That's where I sit when I go to the movies. (This ain't Pulitzer Prize stuff.) Why do I sit there, you ask? (Oh, come on, admit it. You don't give a shit.) Because that's the best seat in the house. You're far enough that you don't break your neck, but close enough to let the movie take you over. I like that.

I like movies, plain and simple. You may notice, when perusing my reviews, that most of them are positive. There's two reasons for this. The first is: I don't get paid to do this, and I have to pay my own way. So I'm pretty much only gonna see the movies I want to see, and I have a pretty good detector of what's gonna suck (pretty good. Doesn't always work. See my "Down To You" review.). The other reason is that I love the movies, and can find a reason to like just about anything. On the other hand, when a movie stinks, it really pisses me off. (Again, see my "Down To You" review. Just don't see "Down To You"!)

So, when I started writing the monthly column, I really started to enjoy having an excuse to write about the movies. But only doing it once a month is became a little insubstantial. Then "SEEN" disappeared for a while, and I really didn't have an excuse to write. So, I set up this web page. Here, you can read new reviews, as well as all of the pieces I've written, and the long-ago original "SEEN" reviews (Okay, big fuckin' deal, I know)

So, enjoy, and thanks for stopping by.

LAST UPDATE: 24 July 2001