Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Eric D. Snider?

Eric is a freelance film critic, columnist, humorist, bon vivant, raconteur and man-about-town. His movie reviews appear at EricDSnider.com (duh), Film.com, and Cinematical, as well as in print publications such as Salt Lake City Weekly. His "Snide Remarks" column is published at EricDSnider.com. He is a regular contributor to Glenn Beck's Fusion magazine and is probably the most liberal person on the staff, which isn't saying much.

A more detailed biography can be found here.

When will you review [movie title]?

I review pretty much all of the major releases. If there's a title I haven't reviewed, it's usually because it hasn't opened yet, or it's in limited release and hasn't come to Portland yet. (Why Portland? Because that's where I live.) Or maybe it has come to Portland and I simply haven't had a chance to see it yet.

At any rate, you should check the alphabetical archives or do a search for the title before concluding that I haven't reviewed it. If it's a limited-release picture, I might have reviewed it several months ago, and so even though it might be new to your city, it would no longer be in the "Recent Releases" section of the movie page.

If it's a wide-release film (something that's playing "everywhere") and more than two weeks have passed since it opened and I still haven't reviewed it, then odds are I'm just not going to. This is uncommon, but it does happen, usually because it wasn't screened for critics before it opened and nobody was paying me to see it after it did.

So the answer to the original question is either "When it opens," "When it opens in Portland," or "Never."

There's a movie that you didn't review when it came out that I wish you would review. Will you?

Sorry, no. I'm too busy with the current releases to write reviews of older films. (That doesn't mean I don't watch them sometimes, just that I don't review them.) Now, occasionally I'm commissioned to review a DVD of an older film, and thus I wind up writing a review of the film itself. But barring a situation like that, I don't usually write about anything other than current releases.

What song was playing during that one part of that one movie? What's that one actor's e-mail address? Where was that one movie filmed?

I don't know.

Please understand that my only connection to the movies is the same as yours: I watch them. I also write reviews of them, but that doesn't give me additional access to the people who make them.

You wrote a review of a play. Can you tell me about the sets or costumes for that production, or how I can contact a particular actor who was in it?

No. (You'd be amazed how often I get questions like this.) Please note the dates on the theater reviews: 1997-2003. In other words, a long time ago. I don't remember the details of the sets or costumes, nor do I know how you can get the rights to perform it, nor do I know how to reach the actors.

What's the deal with "Snide Remarks"?

"Snide Remarks" is a column that I write every Monday for EricDSnider.com. It's intended to be a general-interest humor column, though sometimes the interest is more specific and sometimes it's not very funny. I started writing it in 1997 for The Daily Universe (the student paper at Brigham Young University, where I was a student), and subsequently wrote it for the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah. In March 2004 it relaunched as an online-only, subscription-only feature. Then in August 2006 it was liberated and made available for free to one and all. Enjoy it, won't you?

Shouldn't a FAQ for a humor writer's site include at least one "funny" question?

No, but your mom should.