Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 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 ...

. She joined ''

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

'' as a senior writer in 1991, working as a film critic for the magazine alongside

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

from 1995 to 2013.

Early life

Lisa Schwarzbaum was born on July 5, 1952, to Leon Schwarzbaum, a combat engineer during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

. The oldest child of a Jewish family raised in the Bronx, she has two brothers. Schwarzbaum has credited WWOR-TV's ''Million Dollar Movie'' series for sparking her interest in films through its presentation of

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

' catalog. After concentrating in music at

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...

, her mother suggested that she become an

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

to combine her interest in writing. Lisa Schwarzbaum's early work under Leo Lerman in the arts and entertainment section of ''Mademoiselle'' further shaped her career as a film critic.

Career

Schwarzbaum's writing career began with reviewing classical music for '' The Real Paper'' and ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

''. Aside from her work as a film critic for ''

'' from 1995 to 2013, she has also written for ''

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 ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'', '' The New Statesman'' and ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

''. She is a member of the National Society of Film Critics, is a past president of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has served a five-year term on the New York Film Festival's selection committee. Following Gene Siskel's 1999 death, Schwarzbaum served as a guest co-host for an episode of Season 14 of ''Roger Ebert & the Movies''. She appeared on a February 2004 episode of '' Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire'' as part of the first "Three Wise Men" panel to support the wrong answer option. She had multiple appearances on ''Charlie Rose'' to discuss recent movie releases. Schwarzbaum is featured in the 2009 documentary '' For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism'' describing the importance and impact of two women critics,

Molly Haskell Molly Clark Haskell (born September 29, 1939)Aitken, Ian, ed. (2006)''Encyclopedia of Documentary Film, Volume 2'' New York: Routledge. p. 541. . is an American film critic and author. She contributed to '' The Village Voice''—first as a ...

and Janet Maslin. In early 2015, Schwarzbaum was selected for Amtrak's inaugural writing residency program, in which she produced blog posts on her cross-country travel and wrote about her father for ''Tablet''. In her final column for ''

'' in 2013, she wrote:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarzbaum, Lisa 1952 births Living people American film critics Time (magazine) people American women film critics 20th-century American women journalists Journalists from New York City People from Queens, New York 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American women writers