Earlier this week, Matt Zoller Seitz announced that he’s leaving behind print journalism and his staff position at The New York Times to focus on his filmmaking.  I first discovered Matt when he wrote for the New York Press some years back, and he instantly became one of my “go to” critics – one of those people whose byline brings both comfort and excitement, which made it all the more thrilling when he published two pieces of mine last year on his blog and actually took the time to edit and discuss what worked and needed shoring up.  He’s a genuinely nice guy, and I wish him the best.

Discussion of the issue has raised a memory that I had forgotten about:  for awhile in the late nineties, the New York Press film staff was comprised of Matt, Armond White, and Godfrey Cheshire – three astoundingly intelligent critics, each with their own approach to the medium and their own fascinating ideological leanings.  I’d pick up a paper to read any one of them, and the idea of all three of them being in the same place (or, for that matter, J. Hoberman, Michael Atkinson, and Dennis Lim under the same umbrella) really underscores the state of the business only a few years later.