Mick LaSalle (born May 7, 1959) is an American

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...

and the author of two books on pre-Code Hollywood. Up to March 2008, he had written more than 1,550 reviews for the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' and he has been

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

ing them since September 2005.

Life and career

LaSalle is the author of ''Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood'', a history/critical study of the actresses who worked in the film industry between 1929 and 1934. It was published by

Thomas Dunne Books Thomas Dunne Books was an imprint of St. Martin's Press, which is a division of Macmillan Publishers. From 1986 until April 2020, it published popular trade fiction and nonfiction. History The imprint signed David Irving, a scholar, for a Joseph ...

in 2000. In his review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Andy Webster called it "an overdue examination of a historic conflict between Hollywood and would-be monitors of morality" and added LaSalle "has an avuncular but informative style, and makes his points with a relaxed economy." Nationally syndicated columnist Liz Smith called it "a brilliant work." The book served as the basis for the

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

''Complicated Women'', directed by Hugh Munro Neely and narrated by

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...

, which originally was broadcast by

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...

in May 2003. LaSalle provided commentary for and was associate producer of the project. LaSalle's follow-up to ''Complicated Women'' was ''Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man'', published by Thomas Dunne in 2002. LaSalle has lectured on film subjects at various film festivals, including those in the Hamptons,

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, and Mill Valley and at

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

's Film Forum and

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

's Castro Theatre. His third book, "The Beauty of the Real: What Hollywood Can Learn From Contemporary French Actresses," was published in 2012. His fourth book, "Dream State: California in the Movies" (Heyday Books) was published in 2021. In the late 1990s, LaSalle was the on-air film critic for

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...

. He was a panelist at the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

s. He was also a panelist at the 2009 Berlin film festival. In addition to his reviews, he answers film-related questions in the ''Chronicle'' column ''Ask Mick LaSalle''. As the primary film critic for the ''Chronicle'', LaSalle's reviews appear in all the Chronicle's sister newspapers of the Hearst chain, including the ''

Connecticut Post The ''Connecticut Post'' is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Ansonia, Bridgeport, Darien, Derby, Easton ...

'', the '' Albany Times-Union'', the ''

San Antonio Express-News The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas, founded in 1865. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the sta ...

'' and the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

''.

Personal life

LaSalle is married to

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Amy Freed.''The New York Times'' profile of Amy Freed, November 16, 2003
/ref>

References

External links

*
Mick LaSalle
at the

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

Mick LaSalle
at the ''

''
Ask Mick LaSalle
at the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lasalle, Mick American film critics American film and television podcasters American male non-fiction writers American documentary filmmakers 1959 births Living people