Justin Chang and Joe Morgenstern: On Cinevangelism

In 2005, veteran film critic Joe Morgenstern became only the third practitioner of one of the most vital forms of belletristic journalism (after Roger Ebert in 1975 and Stephen Hunter in 2002) to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Nearly two decades later, Justin Chang joined this elite coterie with a portfolio of trenchant reviews written against the tableaux of an industry whose enduring vitality (as exemplified by 2023's Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon) has been offset by the vicissitudes of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bottom-line imperatives of the industry's financialization and the paradox of global youth cultures that revere short-form visual media more than ever.

In this episode, Chang and Morgenstern convene at the venerable Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard for a cross-generational master class rooted in long-standing mutual admiration, running the gamut from formative influences (Betty Boop shorts, The Fox and the Hound) and the surprising benefits of illegible notes to the decline of neighborhood cinemas and memorable interactions with such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin and Ryan Coogler.

A transcript to this episode is available here.

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The Pulitzer on the Road Podcast is a production of the Pulitzer Prize Board and is produced by Pineapple Street Studios. Our host is Nicole Carroll, Pulitzer Board member and professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Senior producer is Justine Daum, and executive producers are Bari Finkel and Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller.

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