Harry Knowles
Harry Jay Knowles ( born December 11, 1971 in Austin, Texas) is an American film critic and Internet - famous for the website Is not It Cool News, published movie reviews and reports on current events in the industry. Knowles is a member of the Austin Film Critics Association.
Life
Harry Jay Knowles was born on Dec. 11, 1971 in Austin, Texas, and is the son of Jarrell Jay Knowles and Helen Jane (Harrison) Knowles, who married in Austin on September 19, 1970. He spent his first years on the journey through the Southwest and Mexico with his parents, who were responsible for the light show at rock concerts. His parents then moved to Austin and began, Comics and Fan of films on the upper floor of their Victorian home for sale. They also organized in 1976, the Austin Fantasy Film Festival, one of the first science fiction conventions in Austin. Knowles spent more and more time to watch horror and other films, mostly 16- mm - bootleg versions.
Knowles ' parents separated in 1983 and divorced on 12 March 1984 and his mother was awarded custody of him and his younger sister Dannie. They lived together then on a ranch in west Texas. His mother received the comics, movies and merchandise and gave it to her two children. This and the remote location of the ranch meant that Knowles more and more time spent to read comics and watch movies. Knowles was also a member of the Boy Scouts of America, where he was Eagle Scout ( the highest rank you can reach ). 1989, at the age of 19, Knowles moved back to his father and his half-brother Larry. His mother died on 5 December 1992 a fire at the Port Wood Ranch in Seymour, Texas.
In 1994, Knowles fell while he was driving a car with a high memorabilia at a convention, a ramp, and was then run over by about 540 kg car. The accident injured his back and left him virtually bedridden be. With a surprising legacy of $ 5,000 from the life insurance his mother, he bought a quality computer, and set up a friend for him an internet one, so they could play together Doom.
Knowles married Patricia Cho Jones on July 15, 2007 in Austin.
On 4 April 2008 Knowles announced that he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. On 20 May 2008 he underwent a gastric band surgery to alleviate his diabetes and lose much of its weight, which he had gained as a result of his health problems. In January 2011, an emergency spinal surgery was performed on him. According to Knowles, the feeling could be restored in his legs by the operation, for the first time in 15 years. He now receives physical therapy to walk again to learn.
Career
After buying a computer in 1994, Knowles brought in the use of this, and the Internet itself, and began to be active to exchange gossip and rumors with other fans about future movies in newsgroups. After he was criticized by future film critic Mike D' Angelo for the published binary images in the newsgroups, Knowles created the website from the Is not It Cool News was established in February 1996.
Due to the notoriety of its website Knowles was in high demand in the mass media, including in magazines, newspapers and television news. In 2000 he was on the 95th place on the Forbes Power List. He was also seen on TV in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies and Politically Incorrect.
Harry Knowles is also the documentation For the Love of Movies: to see The Story of American Film Criticism as a proponent of movie reviews on the Internet; he articulates the gap between older and younger critics and advocates for movies by Michael Bay.
In the movie Fanboys from the year 2009, he is played by Ethan Suplee.
Film events
Since 1999, Knowles directed at the weekend, which is closest to his birthday (December 11 ), the event Butt- numb -a- thon ( BNAT ) from. The event, also known under the name Geek Christmas, is a 24 -hour film party, held at the unofficial film premieres, old film be shown on a big screen and unknown, most remarkable films can be seen. Film fans and professionals travel from America and around the world to participate in the event, which will take place at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin. BNAT has been called " the most exclusive and mysterious locked Film Festival " and is "the film event in which one enters the hardest ."
In addition, Knowles is working on the program for Austin's Fantastic Fest, an eight-day film festival which has specialized in the genres of horror, science fiction and fantasy. The festival is also a year in Alamo Drafthouse Cinema ( South Lamar in more detail ) in Austin instead.
Controversies
Knowles takes on Press Events in part, paid for by the film studios, including visits to film sets and premieres. It came to the question of whether this affects his articles and his criticisms. He was flown among other things, to the premiere of Godzilla and were awarded the film a very positive review, while the vast majority of film critics did not like the movie. Knowles waved to and later criticized the film sharp. He and his followers gave, however, that he even forgives average reviews on movies to the events he was invited, and is not usually quite often the same opinion as the critics of the mass media. Knowles gave the film Monkeybone a negative review, even though he had a cameo in it.
In 1999 he wrote an article in which he praised a screenplay by Drew McWeeny and Scott Swan. However, he did not mention that McWeeny was an author his website and wrote under the pseudonym " Moriarty ". This and other errors were published in a series of articles from Film Threat Magazine.
Beginning of 2000, Knowles released material that was stolen from the home PC of an ABC employee, which Knowles took the view that they are the nominees for the Oscar, which should be announced on the day. The next day, the actual nominees were published, it was revealed that the finalists were wrong in almost every category. Knowles was his fault, but then revealed the IP address of the person minced computer. The Academy moved to sue in consideration Knowles, but decided against it in the end.