J. Hoberman Laid Off: Village Voice Film Critic Let Go After More Than 20 Years

On a day marked by famed film critic Armond White’s annually hilarious Better-Than list, one of White’s many adversaries in the critical world was laid off. The Village Voice let go of long-time film reviewer J. Hoberman, who had been writing for the alt-weekly since 1983.

Hoberman, who started writing for the paper in 1983 and was promoted to head film critic in 1988, was not stunned by the decision.

“I’ve seen a lot of people lose their jobs there in the last five years,” Hoberman said to Daily Intel. “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.”

According to Voice editor Tony Ortega, the paper “is committed to providing comprehensive film coverage, and will continue to publish our many fine film writers, both in print and online.”

Hoberman and White famously came to word-blows when White was disinvited to a screening of ‘Greenberg’ because of nasty things he had written about Noah Baumbach and his mother, former Village Voice critic Georgia Brown. Hoberman and White also scuffled following last year’s New York Film Critics Circle award ceremonies, where White — as master of ceremonies — took pot shots at Darren Aronofsky, ‘The Social Network’ and the aforementioned ‘Greenberg.’

[via Daily Intel]