J. Hoberman
Hoberman in 2012
Born	James Lewis Hoberman (1949-03-14)March 14, 1949 (age 76) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Film critic journalist author academic
Education	Binghamton University (BA) Columbia University (MFA)
Period	1977–present
Subject	Film
Children	2
Website
j-hoberman.com

James Lewis Hoberman (born March 14, 1949)^[1][2] is an Americanfilm critic, journalist,^[3] author and academic. He began working atThe Village Voice in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic from 1988 to 2012.^[4] In 1981, he coined the term "vulgar modernism" to describe the "looney" fringes of Americanpopular culture (e.g. the animatorsTex Avery andChuck Jones,MAD Magazine, TV pioneerErnie Kovacs and the films ofFrank Tashlin).^[5][6][7]

Hoberman was born to a Jewish family inBrooklyn. His ancestors immigrated to the United States fromPoland,Ukraine,Austria-Hungary, andAlsace-Lorraine.^[2][8] He grew up primarily inFresh Meadows, Queens.^[2] Hoberman completed his B.A. degree atBinghamton University and his M.F.A. atColumbia University. At Binghamton, prominentexperimental filmmakerKen Jacobs both instructed and influenced him.^[9]

Hoberman and his wife, a social worker, married in 1974. They have two daughters.^[2] He is an atheist.^[2]

After completing hisMFA Hoberman worked forThe Village Voice underAndrew Sarris. Hoberman specialized in writing aboutexperimental film for the weekly paper: his first published review (in 1977) was ofDavid Lynch's seminal debut filmEraserhead. In the mid-1970s, Hoberman contributed text articles to theunderground comix anthologyArcade, edited byArt Spiegelman andBill Griffith.^[10] From 2009 to 2012, Hoberman was the senior film editor at theVillage Voice, where he was also an active leader in the staff union.^[11]

Hoberman made several short films during the 1970s.Broken Honeymoon #3, originally screened in 1973 and revised in 1978, rearranges footage from an episode ofBewitched. His 1978 filmMission to Mongo explores the connection between popular culture and politics. It uses still images of China, particularly fromThe Red Lantern andThe Red Detachment of Women, and the song "Shanghai Lil" fromFootlight Parade, accompanied by text fromKarl Marx andWalter Benjamin.Cargo of Lure, made in 1974 and released in 1979, is a single continuous shot showingthe Bronx shore from aCircle Line boat. The 1979 filmFramed presents footage from aKodak advertisement, superimposed with quotations fromAndré Bazin and recontextualized by shots of a man holding a picture frame.^[12]

Since 1990, Hoberman has taught cinema history atCooper Union. He has also lectured on film atHarvard andNew York University. In addition to his academic and professional career, Hoberman is the author of several important books on cinema, including a collaboration with fellow film criticJonathan Rosenbaum, entitledMidnight Movies, published in 1983.

In 2006, while reviewing his favorite films of the year, Hoberman wrote, "A curious form of journalism, film reviewing is highly topical yet essentially timeless. It consists of reporting week after week on out-of-body experiences in a parallel universe—subject to its own laws but intermittently visited by millions of others and filled with references to so-called real life."^[13] "From a purely subjective point of view, the film event that affected me most deeply would be the two-day screening ofJacques Rivette’s 14-hourOut 1 at theMuseum of the Moving Image. ButOut 1 had only a single public show—too few to be more than a personal experience."^[13]

At the 2008San Francisco International Film Festival, Hoberman was honored with the prestigiousMel Novikoff Award, an annual award "bestowed on an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public's knowledge and appreciation of world cinema."^[14] Hoberman appears in the 2009 documentary filmFor the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism, recalling his first movie memory, going with his mother to seeCecil B. DeMille'sThe Greatest Show On Earth (1952), and how he was mesmerized by a scene in that film that depicts a train crash.

In January 2012, theVillage Voice laid off Hoberman in a move to cut costs. Hoberman said, "I have no regrets and whatever sadness I feel is outweighed by a sense of gratitude. Thirty-three years is a long time to be able to do something that you love to do, to champion things you want to champion, and to even get paid for it."^[4]

Following his tenure at theVillage Voice, Hoberman has contributed articles to other publications, includingThe Guardian^[15] andThe New York Review of Books. He also contributes regularly toFilm Comment,The New York Times, andThe Virginia Quarterly Review.^[16]

Hoberman participated in the2012Sight & Sound critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films as follows:Au hasard Balthazar,Flaming Creatures,The Girl from Chicago,Man with a Movie Camera,Pather Panchali,The Rules of the Game,Rose Hobart,Shoah,Two or Three Things I Know About Her..., andVertigo.^[17]

He is interviewed in theHBO documentarySpielberg to give insight intoSteven Spielberg's work.

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(July 2020)

• Home Made Movies: Twenty Years of American 8mm & Super-8 films. New York:Anthology Film Archives. 1981.ISBN 978-0317559583.
• Hoberman, J.;Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1983).Midnight Movies.Harper & Row.ISBN 978-0060909901.
• Dennis Hopper: From Method to Madness. Minneapolis:Walker Art Center. 1988.ISBN 978-0935640274.
• Vulgar Modernism: Writing on Film and Other Media. Philadelphia:Temple University Press. 1991.ISBN 978-0877228660.
• Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds.The Museum of Modern Art,Schocken Books. 1992.ISBN 978-0805241075.
• 42nd Street. BFI Film Classics. London:British Film Institute. 1993.ISBN 978-0851703558.
• The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1999.ISBN 978-1566397674.
• On Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures (and Other Secret-flix of Cinemaroc).Granary Books, Hips Road. 2001.ISBN 978-1887123525.
• The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties. New York:The New Press. 2003.ISBN 978-1565849785.
• The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siècle. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 2003.ISBN 978-1566399968.
• An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War. New York:The New Press. 2011.ISBN 978-1595580054.
• Film After Film: (Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema?). New York:Verso Books. 2012.ISBN 978-1781681435.
• Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan. New York:The New Press. 2019.ISBN 978-1595580061.
• Duck Soup. BFI Film Classics. London:British Film Institute. 2021.ISBN 978-1839022258.
• Everything Is Now: Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop, and the 1960s New York Avant-Garde. New York:Verso Books. 2025.ISBN 978-1804290866.

• J. Hoberman website
• J. Hoberman's Top Ten Lists, 1977-2005

• 1949 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American journalists
• 20th-century American male writers
• 20th-century American non-fiction writers
• 21st-century American journalists
• 21st-century American male writers
• 21st-century American non-fiction writers
• American film critics
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• American people of German-Jewish descent
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• Binghamton University alumni
• Columbia University School of the Arts alumni
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• 21st-century American male journalists

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