Marshall Fine (born November 7, 1950) is an American author, journalist, filmmaker and film critic from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Early life

Fine grew up in

Richfield, Minnesota Richfield is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States near the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling. An inner ring suburb of Minneapolis, it is bordered by Minneapolis to the north, Min ...

, a Minneapolis suburb, until he was 13. His family subsequently moved to St. Louis Park, Minnesota, another Minneapolis suburb, which also was home to humorist

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, politician, media personality, and author who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He gained fame as a writer and performer on the television comed ...

, New York Times columnist

Thomas Friedman Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global ...

and filmmakers

Joel and Ethan Coen Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

Career

Fine began his career as a critic at 18, writing reviews of rock concerts and albums for the

Minneapolis Star The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolid ...

while a freshman at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. He worked in newspapers from 1973-2004, at papers in Durango, Colo.; Lawrence, Kan.; Jackson, Miss.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Rochester, NY; Marin County, Calif.; and Westchester County, NY. He subsequently served as film/TV critic for Star magazine from 2004-2016, before retiring from reviewing. He conducted the Playboy Interview with

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, '' The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terr ...

and Tim Robbins for

Playboy Magazine ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

. Fine directed a documentary short,
Flo Fox's Dicthology
" that was selected for the

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

and Amsterdam film festivals in 2002. His documentary feature, "Do You Sleep in the Nude?," about film critic

Rex Reed Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, occasional actor, and television host. He writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for '' The New York Observer''. Early life Reed was born on October 2, 1938, in Fort Wo ...

, was selected for the Hamptons Film Festival (2007) and the South by Southwest Film Festival (2008). His documentary,
Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg
" about comedian Robert Klein, had its debut at the 2016 South by Southwest Film Festival and subsequently played at Tribeca and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. It premiered on the Starz network in March 2017 and is currently unavailable because of The Weinstein Co. bankruptcy. He directed the New York Film Critics Circle's 202
awards video
He is the author of three biographies
"Bloody Sam: The Life and Films of Sam Peckinpah"
(1991)
"Harvey Keitel: The Art of Darkness"
(1997); an
"Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented the Independent Film"
(2006). Fine is a four-time former chairman of the

New York Film Critics Circle The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magaz ...

: 1992, 2002, 2006 and 2015. He was named general manager of the NYFCC in 2016 and retired from the position in 2021. He received a special award from the group in 2022 for "service to the group and his many decades on the New York film scene." As a contributing editor for

Cigar Aficionado ''Cigar Aficionado'' is an American magazine that is dedicated to enjoying the good life and the world of cigars. Published since September 1992, the magazine is known for its profiles on celebrities including Michael Jordan, Jack Nicholson, Th ...

magazine, he has written more than 40 cover stories since 2009. Among his cover story subjects wer
Jay-ZArnold SchwarzeneggerBrad PaisleySylvester StalloneSean CombsJeff BridgesStanley Tucci
an
Jeremy Irons
He helped create and hosted the Journal-News Film Club at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY, from 2001-2004. Fine subsequently created, produced and hosted the Emelin Film Club at the Emelin Theater in Mamaroneck, NY, from 2005-2014. He hosted the Thalia Film Club at Symphony Space on Manhattan's

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

from 2010-14. He was named critic-in-residence a
The Picture House Regional Film Center
in Pelham, NY, in 2014, where he produced and hosted The Picture Hous
Film Club
until his retirement in May 2021. From March 2020, the film club moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to his retirement, he hosted screenings of more than 400 films at the four venues. He received the Harold Lloyd Lifetime Achievement Award from The Picture House in 2021. He served as an adjunct professor of journalism at Purchase College, SUNY, for the 2020-21 academic year. On July 16, 2012, he provoked anger when he posted the first negative review of ''

The Dark Knight Rises ''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is th ...

''. His review was posted on review site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

and within minutes, started receiving hateful comments and death threats. Rotten Tomatoes had to remove the link to his review and temporarily disable comments on reviews for the movie. When asked about the situation in an interview, he said "It's part of the job." He is a founding member of Westchester Collaborative Theater, and wrote several plays – one-act and full-length – produced by the company.

Bibliography

* ''Bloody Sam: The Life and Films of Sam Peckinpah'' (1991) * ''Harvey Keitel: The Art of Darkness'' (1997) * ''Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented the American Independent Film'' (2005)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fine, Marshall 1950 births American biographers American male biographers American film critics Living people