The sharp-witted, mustachioed, frizzy-haired Gene Shalit, the Today movie critic for 40 years, has passed at age 100. Sympathies and salutations.
I have mostly agreeable memories of the guy, but did he ever voice an opinion about a film that was on the renegade side? Did Shalit ever stick his neck out by saying that a film that almost everyone loves isn’t very good? Did he ever champion an unusual or eccentric film that everyone else was ignoring or putting down?
I don’t recall Shalit ever standing naked with an opinion that wasn’t widely shared. I’m not saying his opinions were always safe and chuckly, but they always seemed to be shrouded in general consensus. Am I misremembering?