At The Movies With 黑料老司机Alumna Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire 鈥93 is living a movie buff鈥檚 dream. She serves as co-host of the TV series 鈥淓bert Presents at the Movies鈥 and the online program 鈥淲hat the Flick?!鈥

By Pat Ward
黑料老司机Magazine

Christy LemireChristy Lemire ’93 is living a movie buff’s dream. She serves as co-host of the TV series “” and the online program “” She also writes reviews regularly as the movie critic for The Associated Press.

Lemire earned a B.A. in journalism and broadcast news from 黑料老司机and serves on the Division of Journalism Advisory Board in Meadows School of the Arts.

Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert gave Lemire a thumbs-up as co-host of “Ebert Presents at the Movies,” a retooled version of the well-known movie review show he had hosted with the late Gene Siskel for 23 years. She shares the balcony with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, a critic for the film website MUBI.com. Ebert, who has battled thyroid cancer since 2006 and relies on computer-generated voice technology to speak, appears in brief segments.

Now in its second season on PBS, the half-hour program is taped in Chicago and broadcast in 48 of the country’s top media markets. The series airs locally on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. on KERA-TV (Channel 13). Recent episodes have focused on the year’s best and worst movies so far: Lemire admired “The Tree of Life,” filmed in Texas by Austin resident Terrence Malick, and panned “The Hangover Part II” as a dim follow-up to the wildly popular 2009 comedy.

Lemire also offers her opinions about recent hits and misses on “What the Flick?!” (See her co-reviews of  and "") Appearing with her on the online program are Ben Mankiewicz of Turner Classic Movies and Matt Atchity, editor-in-chief of RottenTomatoes.com, a leading film review aggregator.

Her thoughtful, humor-tinged reviews have appeared in newspapers for more than a decade. She started critiquing movies for the global news service while working in the Dallas bureau in 1999. As a general assignments reporter for AP, she covered some University-related stories, including the first stages of construction on SMU’s Gerald J. Ford Stadium.

She was named the AP’s first full-time movie critic in 2004. Home base is her native Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband and young son.

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