Appreciating Andy

Andy Klein has been let go from L.A. CityBeat. I can only assume they are in dire straits, to be losing their best writer.

If Andy can’t be a full-time critic, there’s no hope or future for any of us in the field. Sooner or later, the younger crowd will hit middle-age, and if we’re lucky, will still be able to appreciate the new movies and the populist ones to the degree that Andy still does.

I was a fan of his before I knew him — this was a critic who loved South Park and Jackie Chan every bit as much as obscure French detective movies. I knew that most critics would dismiss, say, a Michael Bay movie out of hand, but that his opinion might surprise.

In the years I’ve known him, I’ve worked as his editor and had him for my editor. He was an advocate for me to join LAFCA long before most other members agreed, and he’s been equally good at allowing other young critics a place to be heard, voices like Brent Simon and Amy Nicholson. It’s because of him that I was ever in the pages of CityBeat. The photo above is from the LA Press Club Awards a couple years ago where we were both nominated.

I don’t think there’s much of a future for alt-weeklies at this point. The best thing for Andy would be if someone wanted a film expert who actually knows his shit on a TV show (Andy should have had Roeper’s job opposite Ebert, and he could clean house on the dumbasses that show has now). Everything skews towards young pretty-faces nowadays, but Andy’s tastes are pretty damn hip (even if he still doesn’t “get” anime, something I’ve given him a hard time about). If Kurt Loder can still be employed by MTV despite being nowhere near his twenties, someone should have room for Andy Klein.

In the meantime, I urge him to get a website, at the very least. His is a voice we still need.

UPDATE: CityBeat has little sense of irony, apparently. In the brand new issue, that also contains what presumably will be Andy’s last review as a staffer, there’s a column criticizing the LA Weekly for its layoffs.