Born in 1943, grew up in A Frank Lloyd Wright house in Florence, Alabama,, the grandson and son of movie exhibitors. Attended The Putney School (1959-61), Washington Square College (1961-62), Bard College (1962-66), State University of New York at Stony Brook (1966-68), specializing in literature. Lived in Paris (1969-1974) and London (1974-77), working mostly as a film journalist. Then a decade in the freelance wilderness (San Diego, New York, Hoboken, Berkeley, Santa Barbara) before becoming the main film critic at the Chicago Reader, a plum job that lasted twenty years (1987-2008), before retiring and returning to freelance writing and teaching (Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond, FilmFactory in Sarajevo, University of Chicago, School of the Art Institute), Fourteen books as author or coauthor since 1980, five more as editor and/or translator since 1978.