Carrie Rickey (born November 26, 1952) 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 ...
. Rickey was a film critic for ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...
'' from 1986 to 2011, and has contributed to ''
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 ...
'', ''
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 ''
Village Voice''.
Her essays are collected in many books including ''The American Century'' and ''American Movie Critics''. Rickey was an early champion of female filmmakers. During her tenure as a movie reviewer, she covered technological evolutions in the industry from the video revolution to the rise of digital film, and has profiled artists and filmmakers from
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...
and
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his ot ...
to
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...
and
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing romantic comedy films and received numerous accolades including a British Academy Film Award as ...
.
Biography
Rickey grew up in Los Angeles, California, where she developed a lifelong interest in film. She attended the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
(AB 1974, MFA 1976) where she studied with
Manny Farber
Emanuel Farber (February 20, 1917 – August 18, 2008) was an American painter, film critic and writer. Often described as "iconoclastic",Grimes, William (August 19, 2008) ''New York Times''Kiderra, Inga (August 21, 2008Obituary: Artist and Crit ...
and worked as his teaching assistant. Between 1975 and 1976 Rickey participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program.
Career
From 1980 to 1983, Rickey was a film critic at
the ''Village Voice''. She wrote one of the first retrospectives of the work of filmmaker
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was a British actress, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-y ...
and one of the first considerations of filmmaker
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...
. She then became a film critic for ''
The Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American conservative daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarde ...
'' (1984–85) and also wrote for ''
Artforum
''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...
'' and ''
Art in America'' as an art critic. She has served on numerous juries, including the
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...
from 1988 to 1991.
In 1986, Rickey became the film critic at ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a position she held for the next 25 years.
She has written essays on many artists such as
Leon Golub and
Philip Guston and wrote the
Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributo ...
essays for
Broadcast News and
Videodrome. She has also taught courses at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences
The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences (also known as SAS) is the academic institution encompassing the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Formerly known as the Faculty of Ar ...
.
[
Rickey contributed chapters to ''The Power of Feminist Art'', ''The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll'', among many other collections. She is included in the book ''Feminists Who Changed America'' for her role in chronicling the work and the progress of women artists and filmmakers in articles and catalogue essays.
In 2018, she won the award for Best Commentary (Film/Television) from the L.A. Press Club for her serve, "What Ever Happened to Women Directors?" and won a regional Emmy (Mid-Atlantic division) for best Documentary for the film, "Before Hollywood: Philadelphia and the Birth of the Movies."]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rickey, Carrie
1952 births
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women writers
American art critics
American feminist writers
American film critics
American women art critics
American women film critics
Journalists from Los Angeles
Living people
The Philadelphia Inquirer people
University of California, San Diego alumni
University of Pennsylvania faculty
The Village Voice people