Nationality American Education University of Chicago Role Film critic | Name Dave Kehr Subject Film | |
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Occupation Author, journalist, film historian, film critic Books When Movies Mattered: Reviews from a Transformative Decade, Italian Film Posters | ||
LIVE Q&A with MoMA Film Curator Dave Kehr (July 25)
Dave Kehr (born 1953) is an American film critic. A critic at the Chicago Reader and the Chicago Tribune for many years, he later wrote a weekly column for The New York Times on DVD releases. He is now a curator in the Department of Film of the Museum of Modern Art.
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Early life and education
Dave Kehr did his undergraduate work at the University of Chicago, where he studied English, and learned French in part to read the Cahiers pieces on film. At the time the university did not have a film studies curriculum. He started writing on film for The Maroon, the student newspaper, when he was president of the film society, Doc Films.
Career
From 1974–1985, Kehr wrote for the Chicago Reader, where he established a reputation for independent thinking and an understanding of visual style. Until 1978 he edited the Reader's question and answer column, "The Straight Dope".
He next wrote as a film critic for the Chicago Tribune (1986–1992). He moved to the East Coast to become film critic for the New York Daily News (1993–1998). In 1994, he was a member of the jury at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival. He is a past chairman of the National Society of Film Critics, and a member of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.
Beginning in 1999, Kehr wrote a weekly column for The New York Times on DVD releases, also contributing occasional pieces on individual filmmakers or films. While at the Times, Kehr also maintained a film blog, with reviews of films and occasional comment pieces.
Kehr left the New York Times in late 2013 to work as Adjunct Curator in the film department of the Museum of Modern Art. In 2017 he was promoted to Curator.
Kehr frequently refuses to conform to prevailing popular opinion by expressing dissatisfaction with generally well-reviewed movies, examples including Das Boot, Raging Bull, Apocalypse Now, The Empire Strikes Back, Dog Day Afternoon and Alien, all of which, according to Rotten Tomatoes, currently hold a 96% or larger approval rating among movie critics.