Comments on: The Dissolve is no more.

The Dissolve is no more.

cnanderson — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:47:49 -0800

The End ..because of the various challenges inherent in launching a freestanding website in a crowded publishing environment, financial and otherwise, today is the last day we will be doing that.

By: cnanderson

cnanderson — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:51:24 -0800

Previously

By: JimBennett

JimBennett — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:52:32 -0800

Noooooo!

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:53:18 -0800

What? No! Why! What!

By: allthinky

allthinky — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:56:21 -0800

By: JimBennett

JimBennett — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:57:39 -0800

i had a feeling when they laid off rabin earlier this year that they were in serious trouble financially. i had no idea the hammer would drop this soon, though. the extremely short notice of this makes me wonder what kind of weird back door stuff was going on. i hope pitchfork didn't just lay them all off like, yesterday. the dissolve was wonderful. i've been following these writers since the av club, and now that the onion has ruined that site i am at a loss for where to read intelligent film criticism on the internet. the comments there were wonderful as well. i would happily pay them $15 a month to continue making this content, i'm sure others would too. i hope they look into patreon or kickstarter for a follow up. relying on advertisers for a site like this was never going to work in this day and age, as sad as that is.

By: boubelium

boubelium — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:06:33 -0800

After the great avclub exodus to Dissolve I thought that it would be too good to be true. A site with great writing and minimal clickbait seems like an impossibility these days. A sad say for film geeks.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:07:20 -0800

Aw man... If they can't do it then it makes me wonder who the fuck can.

By: enjoymoreradio

enjoymoreradio — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:08:41 -0800

I'd been getting by in a post-AVC world with Todd VanDerWerff at Vox for TV and The Dissolve for film. This is a tremendous loss for film buffs. The comments there, from staff and reader alike, rivaled the blue for quality and intelligence. .

By: Aznable

Aznable — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:12:36 -0800

Aw man. They were my go-to for determining if I wanted to see a film that I was on the fence about. Well what did The Dissolve think? Oh they liked it? Excellent let's go.

By: AlonzoMosleyFBI

AlonzoMosleyFBI — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:14:16 -0800

This is depressing. And badly handled to boot. They stopped updating in the middle of the day yesterday with no explanation and then put up the goodbye post earlier today. Even their Movie of the Week segment (this week's pick was "Grizzly Man") had only published one of their traditional three posts. Why the hell couldn't Pitchfork (or whomever) just let them finish the damn week?

By: Iridic

Iridic — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:15:32 -0800

A damn shame. I hope they can find a way to keep the band together.

By: lmfsilva

lmfsilva — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:20:02 -0800

I understand the concept behind it, but covering TV in addition to film would have given people a reason to visit more than once in a while when they want to know what to see. Considering my film-viewing habits are split between what can be timeshifted from cable and torrents (most of the time, not-so-recent stuff on either case), I forgot about The Dissolve maybe a month after it debuted, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

By: the phlegmatic king

the phlegmatic king — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:24:30 -0800

This sucks pretty hard; I've been talking to Twitter pals all morning about the shitty ins and outs. It galls me that a site devoted to appreciating movies from the point of view of thoughtful adulthood can't make it, apparently because they didn't write in all caps in Hulk English. Also, my understanding is that The Dissolve was formed after Phipps & Co left the AV Club in a dispute over overreliance on TV recaps. Since the ubiquity of seeing every fucking second of televised content recapped all over the internet drives me nuts, it's hard not to read this as proof that you can't make an internet culture site work without suckling at the TV recap nozzle. Which, boo.

By: Iridic

Iridic — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:31:26 -0800

you can't make an internet culture site work without suckling at the TV recap nozzle. [FanFare tugs collar, glances at audience]

By: not that girl

not that girl — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:34:53 -0800

I followed them on twitter, so got updates with new content all the time. By which I mean, I didn't just go to them for ideas when I was looking for a movie to see. I don't actually see all that many movies, at least not when they come out, so I liked it when they looked at older movies. Also, I really enjoy reading about movies, even ones I'm not likely to see. So, for instance, I really enjoyed their article yesterday about female sexuality and the new Magic Mike movie. I'll really miss the site.

By: Think_Long

Think_Long — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:35:18 -0800

This is a real shame, especially as the AVC slides further into endless relinks of content hosted elsewhere and hastily written and poorly copy-edited tv recaps. The Dissolve commentariat were extremely knowledgeable about film, and seemed really close and largely drama-free. Personally, I would blame navigation problems and extremely poor formatting as being a big barrier to get into the Dissolve, but realistically that's just my pet peeve with the current web aesthetic.

By: Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam

Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:36:14 -0800

Dang that was a really good site :C

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:36:24 -0800

. Darn, The Dissolve was my favorite place on the web for film commentary. Very sad now.

By: Think_Long

Think_Long — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:39:41 -0800

Broadly speaking, I wonder if the Dissolve's failure could be a casualty of the shitty state of modern, commerical film-making. Television commentary thrives in the so-called "golden" age of tv, yet film commentary seems to stutter in the age of endless film sequels and remakes.

By: showbiz_liz

showbiz_liz — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:40:31 -0800

Personally, I would blame navigation problems and extremely poor formatting as being a big barrier to get into the Dissolve, but realistically that's just my pet peeve with the current web aesthetic. I didn't spend much time there, because I never felt sure I was actually able to locate more than like 10% of the content.

By: naju

naju — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:49:28 -0800

Damn. I'm crushed by this.

By: dogwalker

dogwalker — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:49:52 -0800

I'm not super sad to see it go. While it was easily the best film reviewing website running, I had a whole lot of problems with it. First and foremost was the comment section. I did not find their comment sections as worthwhile as others here, and would have vastly preferred it if Pitchfork had mandated their No Comments policy here as well. They were the best going, but I'm hopeful that whoever tried to take their place will be even better.

By: Think_Long

Think_Long — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:52:05 -0800

What didn't you like about their comments section? I thought they were, generally speaking, pretty refreshingly up to speed on gender and racial issues, so the discussions tended to be a bit more evolved in my limited experience - I never actually participated.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:53:24 -0800

It had stopped updating when Rabin got laid off, but I am in mourning for Forgotbusters.

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:56:29 -0800

i am at a loss for where to read intelligent film criticism on the internet. Nowhere, basically.

By: lmfsilva

lmfsilva — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:58:33 -0800

IMDB? (gets coat)

By: naju

naju — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:00:43 -0800

Letterboxd is a decent place for intelligent discussion of film, provided you're connected with the right people. I'll be following as much of the Dissolve staff there as I can.

By: The Pluto Gangsta

The Pluto Gangsta — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:01:27 -0800

I'm finding it odd, this rush of people on a few sites I follow reacting to this by saying "Oh, I hope they start their own site now, I'll pay a monthly subscription!" And my immediate reaction is "Well, we call that a magazine, and all industry experience and market research to date says that no, no you wouldn't." The notion of "film critic" as a profession doesn't make sense anymore. Either pursue it as a deeply-loved hobby, or broaden the scope and admit that such criticism only works in a context with television, comic books, music, Youtube, and yes, celebrity gossip and reality shows. You know, like exactly what the AV Club is doing....

By: dogwalker

dogwalker — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:06:59 -0800

What didn't you like about their comments section? There's a lot I didn't like, but here's an example for The Overnight, which is the last movie I saw (this past weekend). It's not exactly the height of film discussion, only one comment really shows that the person making it actually saw the movie being reviewed, and it got a shitty reply. It's just people talking about whether they want to see the movie or not and the actors' other projects. With I guess some snarky jokes? Sure, it's absolutely better than the vast majority of web comment sections, but I don't find it worthwhile enough to justify its existence. (Obviously, I'm talking about 1 page on their whole site, but it's a fairly accurate representation of my larger experience. Not unpleasant, but ultimately worthless.)

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:07:42 -0800

i am at a loss for where to read intelligent film criticism on the internet. There are some pretty great writers at rogerebert.com.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:09:40 -0800

Can they just all get re-hired by the AV Club, and everyone pretend like there was no exodus?

By: the phlegmatic king

the phlegmatic king — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:12:34 -0800

This makes me wonder if there's room for a totally different approach to running a site with this kind of content. Like, maybe something like the Dissolve could exist under the aegis of a large, well-funded art museum that considers film to be part of its brief (MoMA? The Walker in Minneapolis?). There'd still be revenue expectations, but they might not be as cutthroat; and the museum would see some significant gains in extending their audience beyond the typical art-museum member base. I dunno. Probably wouldn't work, but it's an interesting thought experiment.

By: wyndham

wyndham — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:33:56 -0800

. I really liked the site, and I will miss it. Other sites I'd recommend for their film coverage are The New Yorker (esp richard brody), Tiny Mix Tapes, and Slant.

By: schmod

schmod — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:34:10 -0800

^ That sounds an awful lot like public radio. Which is to say, I'd totally support high-quality online journalists using that same model.

By: Schismatic

Schismatic — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:39:17 -0800

Like, maybe something like the Dissolve could exist under the aegis of a large, well-funded art museum that considers film to be part of its brief (MoMA? The Walker in Minneapolis?). There actually is something almost exactly like that, called Reverse Shot which is partnered with the Museum of the Moving Image. Their content is typically pretty good, if focused on more esoteric pictures than The Dissolve, but maybe if they had a dozen more writers... I'm really upset about the lose of The Dissolve, both because the lack of new content but also what it says for high quality film writing on the web. Our best minds go to figuring out better algorithms to serve ads, but figuring out how unusually good content can stay online seems to be impossible? Terribly sad.

By: destro

destro — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:44:02 -0800

Had high hopes but just didn't see sharp enough criticism or other aspects that weren't being highlighted other places already.

By: Merzbau

Merzbau — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:54:51 -0800

I'm still a little in shock and desperately casting about for replacements. One critic I've really enjoyed over the past few months is Tim Brayton, whose blog Antagony & Ecstasy typically covers one film a day, either a current release, a classic film (typically on Sundays), a film requested via reader donation to his annual cancer research fundraiser, or part of a current ongoing project- right now he's writing the final year of his traditional "Summer of Blood," covering horror films that marked important turning points in the American film industry.

By: vibrotronica

vibrotronica — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:55:35 -0800

I'm pretty bummed about this. They were the best place for film buffs on the web. I read them all the time. I will follow those writers elsewhere to wherever they go.

By: the phlegmatic king

the phlegmatic king — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 08:58:04 -0800

Whoa, Reverse Shot winds up being pretty decent. Huh, thanks for pointing me to it.

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:00:43 -0800

A high profile website with quality, intelligent, well written content, commenting on other media, which is member supported with an annual fund-drive of sorts to supplement advertising and other revenues? That'd never work, would it? :)

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:01:13 -0800

i had a feeling when they laid off rabin earlier this year that they were in serious trouble financially. I had missed that -- I am on record as being not so much a Nathan Rabin fan -- but I did notice him freelancing at the AVClub recently and wondered what was up.

By: kenko

kenko — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:08:30 -0800

Reverse Shot's 2014 roundup was excellent.

By: kenko

kenko — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:19:34 -0800

Well, I guess that's just one of many 2014 retrospectives they did, but it's charming.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:26:10 -0800

Wow, I had no idea. Was just looking for something of theirs last night, couldn't find it and didn't investigate more to find out why. Damn. I agree their navigation was baffling. It will be interesting if we really are finally moving to the direct-reader-support model for this kind of thing.

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:27:34 -0800

Why the hell couldn't Pitchfork (or whomever) just let them finish the damn week? Especially since this Friday was their second anniversary...

By: the bricabrac man

the bricabrac man — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 09:53:22 -0800

Ever "celebrate" an anniversary when you're on the verge of splitting up? It ain't fun.

By: octothorpe

octothorpe — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 10:08:09 -0800

Matt Zoller Seitz's tribute the The Dissolve.

By: kyrademon

kyrademon — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 10:52:40 -0800

DAMMIT

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 12:05:49 -0800

It had stopped updating when Rabin got laid off, but I am in mourning for Forgotbusters. Can they just all get re-hired by the AV Club, and everyone pretend like there was no exodus? Rabin has already been doing some free-lance work for the AV Club (four pieces in the past two months), and in particular has revived the My World of Flops series: Mortdecai, I Wanna Marry "Harry".

By: kliuless

kliuless — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 12:12:21 -0800

too bad; i really liked their section on 'essential' movies, kind of like an updated list of ebert's 'great movies'... i hope they keep it up in archive form?

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 12:15:43 -0800

Goddammit.

By: daveje

daveje — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 15:25:32 -0800

Goddammit. This is why we can't have nice things. .

By: freem

freem — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 15:33:44 -0800

Reverse Shot is indeed awesome, but updates way too infrequently to be considered a proper replacement. I'll especially miss the Dissolve's daily roundups of other quality film writing from elsewhere on the net.

By: item

item — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 15:58:15 -0800

I have an idea: Pitchfork should keep the Dissolve and shutter Pitchfork. That way everyone's happy, or at least I am.

By: hap_hazard

hap_hazard — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 16:24:21 -0800

Oh no! I think I used to get several ideas per week about what to watch from the Dissolve, between their in-depth rewatches, and stuff like that 50 badass heroines roundup. But I had started to really wonder at how niche it might have been, 'cos lots of times I couldn't even find the stuff they were talking about, to watch. (I don't stream anything for complicated curmudgeonly/broke-ass reasons, so there's that) I get that no, I probably won't fund a magazine or whatever, but it really does seem like there should be some kind of, I don't know, public arts funding for stuff like this? I'll look at Reverse Shot again it- used to be so constantly and viciously contrarian that it just made me tired. That's what I liked about the Dissolve- it did some of that, but it split opinions enough with the AV club that I could usually average something useful out from it. And again, I wasn't generally reading it for HOT TAKES on whatever Marvel has out this week, I was reading it for depth of knowledge. You know, like the internet was supposed to be for?

By: Rashomon

Rashomon — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 17:01:31 -0800

Oh bummer. I liked their Essential column. Although I admit I didn't get over there enough.

By: holgate

holgate — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 20:56:01 -0800

Although I admit I didn't get over there enough. I was in an online conversation today where I admitted that I hadn't heard of The Dissolve at all, and that this wasn't the first writing/criticism site that I only learned about from its "goodbye" post. The problem of discovery -- and developing the muscle memory to get over to sites enough -- is as significant as for the media being covered.

By: barnacles

barnacles — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 22:00:46 -0800

Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-(

By: On the Corner

On the Corner — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 23:37:13 -0800

By: Awkward Philip

Awkward Philip — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 05:53:18 -0800

I'll especially miss the Dissolve's daily roundups of other quality film writing from elsewhere on the net. Try David Hudson's Keyframe Daily.

By: Theta States

Theta States — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 09:54:40 -0800

By: naju

naju — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 14:40:30 -0800

Editors Keith Phipps and Scott Tobias on the End of The Dissolve and the Future of Film Criticism Yikes... Is there a larger lesson in The Dissolve's fate? Or is there a danger in generalizing too much from your specific situation? Tobias: The economics of digital publishing are not encouraging. We had so many advantages going into this: A core group of writers and editors who had great chemistry and had proven themselves as a team at The A.V. Club; a lean and truly independent company that had only published on the Internet and been successful doing so; and a great deal of support from the media world. We executed the site more or less exactly how we drew it up, and we fell short. Probably way short. Draw your own lessons from that.

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 20:44:31 -0800

"Pitchfork did right by us from the moment we walked through the door to the moment we turned in our keys" They hit this point--that we shouldn't be angry at Pitchfork, because they ended it the right way--so often that I have to believe it's more than just them not wanting to burn bridges, but if "fired abruptly in the middle of a weekday with no warning" is fair, I'd hate to see what unfair looks like.

By: lmfsilva

lmfsilva — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 06:13:17 -0800

"but if "fired abruptly in the middle of a weekday with no warning" is fair, I'd hate to see what unfair looks like" Depends on what "abruptly" and "no warning" means. If they were told earlier this year by management that unless new funding appeared, The Dissolve bank account would be empty and operations would shut down immediately anytime this Summer, that seems average (ie, harsh) operations procedure. Unfair would be getting a call saying everything was fine in May and getting shut down almost immediately. (also, I don't believe for one minute nobody on The Dissolve staff had access to the financials of the operation and didn't knew how close or far they were from reaching readership/ad/social media goals)

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 06:46:59 -0800

They are not so much replacements but I read David Bordwell and Cinephilia and Beyond

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 06:50:40 -0800

Oh, also Senses of Cinema.

By: benzenedream

benzenedream — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 12:21:04 -0800

Personally, I would blame navigation problems and extremely poor formatting as being a big barrier to get into the Dissolve, but realistically that's just my pet peeve with the current web aesthetic. Seconded. The site worked well on a desktop, but I had glitchy javascript issues on Android that prevented scrolling and proper layout. This was not Google Maps FFS, it was a collection of text essays.

By: ricochet biscuit

ricochet biscuit — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 06:56:42 -0800

I found the navigation problems minimal, and the excellent content more than made up for any minor clunkiness. The writers who made up the exodus from the AV Club to The Dissolve were what made the AV Club work for me in days past, and what made The Dissolve so insightful: Phipps, Robinson, Tobias and the rest were smart, loved films, and could communicate their enthusiasms clearly, and most importantly, seemed to know more about their topics than I did. It makes me crazy when the anonymous ~~authors~~ ~~writers~~ typers of clickbait listicles manifestly haven't the faintest idea about the movie they are taking about, or how movies are made in general. Just this morning I read something along the lines of The 6 Reasons Terminator:Genisys Sucked. One of the problems was apparently that the filmmakers had an Oscar-winning actor -- J.K. Simmons -- but put him in it for only fifteen minutes. Now, there is an excellent argument to be made that Simmons as a lot more screen presence than most of the cast of the movie, but the film in question finished shooting months before Whiplash was released and most of a year before Simmons won his Oscar. I guess "this really good actor had only a small role" is not a snappy subhead, but I am not sure that "the producers are not gifted with knowledge of the outcome of future awards shows" is a solid peg to hang your story on either.