The documentary 'The Last Critic,' directed by Matty Wishnow, premiered in the SXSW Documentary Feature Competition, offering an intimate portrait of Robert Christgau, the self-proclaimed dean of American rock critics. Now 83, Christgau continues his signature Consumer Guide reviews on Substack after decades at the Village Voice. The film explores his obsessive approach to grading albums from A+ to E-.
Robert Christgau, born in 1942, pioneered rock criticism with his quirky, graded capsule reviews starting in Esquire in 1969. He moved the Christgau’s Consumer Guide to the Village Voice, where it became a staple through the 1970s and 1990s. Known for acerbic wit, he earned shoutouts from artists like Lou Reed and Sonic Youth for his pointed judgments, such as on Prince’s 'Dirty Mind' and Bryan Adams’ 'Reckless.' Christgau lives with his wife Carola Dibbell in a New York East Village apartment filled with 36,000 vinyl albums, CDs, and cassettes on custom shelves. He types reviews on an old word processor, boasting 14,000 critiques with the line: “To the eternal ‘Opinions are like assholes — everyone’s got one,’ I just say, but not everybody’s got ten thousand of them.” The 83-minute film captures Christgau’s daily ritual of listening and writing, even post-surgery, portraying criticism as his lifelong calling. Contributors including Greil Marcus, Ann Powers, Amanda Petrusich, and others praise his influence, noting his role in diversifying Village Voice music coverage. Christgau critiques Marcus on hip-hop, saying, “I don’t think he feels hip-hop... And I think that’s a function of whether you feel James Brown. And that’s a real gap.” Directed by Matty Wishnow with producers Paul Lovelace, Ben Wu, and Joe Levy, the documentary screened at SXSW on March 25.