Michael Sragow

Michael Sragow (born June 26, 1952 in New York) is a film critic and columnist who has written for The Orange County Register, The Baltimore Sun, The San Francisco Examiner, The New Times, The New Yorker (where he worked with Pauline Kael), The Atlantic and Salon. Sragow also edited James Agee's film essays (for the book Agee on Film), and has written or contributed to several other cinema-related books.

Career

Sragow attended New York University and Harvard University, where he majored in history and literature. Sragow began his career at Boston Magazine, and went on to become the film critic for Rolling Stone Magazine. From 1985 to 1992, he was the lead film critic for The San Francisco Examiner. Commencing in 1999, he was a film critic for salon.com, and commencing in 2001, he was a film critic for The Baltimore Sun. In March, 2013 he became the first film critic in a decade for The Orange County Register in California.

In 2008, Sragow published a biography of director Victor Fleming. In his review, John Gallagher writes that Sragow's biography, "restores the director to his rightful place in film history and popular culture. It’s a fantastic read, assiduously researched, using primary archival resources and a full complement of remembrances from Fleming’s family and colleagues." Jeanine Basinger wrote, "Steven Spielberg said about Fleming, 'We honor his movies and don’t know him, because he did his job so well.' Thanks to Michael Sragow, we now know Victor Fleming." Sragow's book won the 2008 Marfield Prize, which is a national award for arts writing.