Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin helped found the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. She is president of its board of directors.

Education

Maslin graduated from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. She began her career as a rock music critic for ''

The Boston Phoenix ''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' a ...

'' and became a film editor and critic for them. She also worked as a freelancer for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

'' and worked at ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

''.

Career

Maslin became a film critic for ''

'' in 1977. From December 1, 1994, she replaced

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death i ...

as the chief film critic. She continued to review films for ''The Times'' until 1999. Her film-criticism career, including her embrace of American

independent cinema Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independen ...

, is discussed in the documentary '' For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism'' (2009). In the documentary, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

'' critic Lisa Schwarzbaum recalls the excitement of having a woman as the lead reviewer at ''The New York Times''. From 1994 to 2003, Maslin was a frequent guest on ''

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co- ...

''. Overall she made 16 appearances on the program, giving her insights on the films of the day and predicting the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

. Maslin continues to review books for ''The New York Times''. Among her reviews are many enthusiastic discoveries of then-unknown crime writers, the first American assessment of an

Elena Ferrante Elena Ferrante () is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of '' Neapolitan Novels'' are her most widely known works. ''Time'' magazin ...

novel and a 2011 essay on the widowed Joyce Carol Oates' memoir, ''A Widow's Story,'' which offended some of Oates's admirers.

References

External links

Janet Maslin
at ''The New York Times'' - Archived articles written by Maslin. *
"Janet Maslin"
at

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 Wan ...

– Includes links to full texts of reviews by Janet Maslin.
Interview with Janet Maslin
'' The Connection''. Broadcast on

WBUR WBUR-FM (90.9 FM) is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts, owned by Boston University. It is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM and produces several nationally distributed prog ...

(

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

), February 10, 2000. Accessed December 21, 2007. (

RealAudio RealAudio, or also spelled as Real Audio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fi ...

format.)
Rockcritics.com interview
– May 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Maslin, Janet 1949 births Living people University of Rochester alumni American film critics American women film critics American literary critics American women literary critics American music critics American women music critics Critics employed by The New York Times People from Mount Pleasant, New York American women journalists Women writers about music 21st-century American women