5:37 pm Jan. 4, 20127
J. Hoberman, longtime film critic for The Village Voice, has been let go from the paper, where he's been a staff writer since 1983.
The news leaked out in a tweet from the music writer Mike Rubin early this evening: "A CINEMATIC SIN: Further diluting what's left of their 'brand,' Village Voice laid off J. Hoberman today, senior film critic since 1988."
Capital has confirmed Hoberman's exit with a source. Hoberman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment but we'll update here if we hear back from him.
UPDATE: Daily Intel has also confirmed the news, with a comment from Hoberman: "I've seen a lot of people lose their jobs there in the last five years. I would be disingenuous to say I hadn't considered the possibility that this would happen to me eventually. I was shocked, but not surprised."
Tony Ortega, editor of the paper, said he couldn't comment on personnel matters, but, he wrote in an email: "The Voice is committed to providing comprehensive film coverage, and will continue to publish our many fine film writers, both in print and online."
Hoberman is the latest in a string of old-time Voice veterans who have parted ways with the paper in recent years including Tom Robbins, Wayne Barrett, Nat Hentoff (though he's come back as a freelancer), and Ward Harkavy.
*This item was updated from an earlier version to include Hoberman's comment to Daily Intel.
Hoberman is a treasure and deserves better than this. Then again, like Hoberman himself pointed out, he's in excellent company as far as prized writers screwed over by the Voice.
Btw, Harkavy doesn't belong on that list of "old-time Voice veterans" let go by the paper. He was part of a wave of arrivals that marked the start of the Voice's true decline. He was part of the problem and diminishes a list that includes luminaries like Hentoff, Bareett, and Robbins.
I travelled with jh to the set of John carpenter's The Thing three decades ago...both of us got a last-minute invite, and neither of us had the wardrobe to suffer three days on a glacier. I was there for Fangoria, he was there for the Voice, but he was the opposite of a 'film snob.' Hobe's passion for film is unique, I'm sure he'll be welcomed elsewhere.
Hard to call it being screwed over if the man had a job there for decades. No one is guaranteed permanent employment. It's sad, but it's not a tragedy. Life goes on. I'm sure he'll find a new outlet for his skills.
I interned at The Village Voice in 1980-81 for film critics Andrew Sarris and Tom Allen, and Hoberman was freelancing there at the time. I know he doesn't remember me, but I enjoyed reading his work then and recognized he had the stuff - I knew he would be on his way up the ladder. Certainly given what's happening these days at publications everywhere it's not surprising, but it's still disappointing that so many talented writers are cast off. The Voice is a shell of its former self anyway, and I'm confident Hoberman will land in a better place - perhaps creating something new on his own.
One less real critic to stand up against the no-pay bloggers' army of darkness.
I ran into JH in my favorite Lebanese corner store near the Martinique Hotel in Cannes 3 years ago - well I saw the name on his badge, but was too intimidated to go up to him to tell him I am a fan. How I wish I'd overcome my shyness. I've relished and mulled over every word in his review of Naruse's NAGARERU (Flowing).
The Voice will just do what they did with all the other veteran talent they purged over the last decade: replace them with a twenty-two year old loudmouth.
The Voice went to sh!t years ago.