I have wondered how a person falls into a career such as writing movie or book reviews for a newspaper. It probably takes a huge amount of interest in books and movies plus maybe having the distinction of being a person who is not an artist but merely an arts appreciator. I used to feel some contention towards reviewers when I started reading reviews because I thought the reviewers were pretty lackadaisical about being highly critical of others while not really doing anything all that important themselves.
It reminded me of the adage about how those who can’t do teach. That one seemed pretty true to me at times in my life too especially in regard to some of the high school teachers I had. I have tried to write a new book review myself and it was thought provoking because I learned more what my own opinions actually were and I also found out how difficult it is to articulate opinions at times. This must come pretty naturally to a few people and these are probably the folks who write book review professionally.
In order to effectively write reviews for your career you have to be a naturally critical person. I am not sure I would want to be best friends with many reviewers because I would rather be friends with artistic sorts who don’t analyze everything but produce works of art instead. I know it takes all sorts of people to make a world, another adage I tend to agree with. So while the reviewer might not be one of my close friends it is still useful to see the critical opinion of another about a piece of work. I always read the reviews of books movies and restaurants in any publication that publishes them. It gives me a reference point from which to approach something. I don’t always or even often agree with the reviewer but it still gives an overview of the story plus information around it.