Nov. 18--Confirming the image of film critics as comically touchy, thin-skinned narcissists, the online response to actor/author Jesse Eisenberg's humor piece for the Shouts Murmurs section of The New Yorker turned Twitter into a playground of sand-flinging accusations Wednesday.
Eisenberg, as it happens, was in Chicago Tuesday. The "Social Network" Oscar nominee discussed and read from his short story collection, "Bream Gives Me Hiccups," at a Chicago Tribune Printers Row event at Venue SIX10 downtown.
Tribune reporter Mark Caro, who hosted the conversation, discussed the instantly controversial New Yorker piece with Eisenberg and asked whether anything in the egocentric perspective of certain blinkered critics rang a bell with Eisenberg himself.
Here's the pertinent video from the Eisenberg event. Meantime, to the non-fictional film critics who have been lathering up a storm today about the New Yorker essay, I say: Calm down. Take a second to think about how you're coming off. And for the love of James Agee, work on your tone.
