The Foreign Service Journal, May 2016

the Foreign Service journal | may 2016 51 Act Two: Movie Reviewer By M i ke Cann i ng W henever I tell people I review movies, they invariably exclaim: “Hey, you are so lucky; how can I get that job?” In my case, by answering an ad. In 1993, after 28 years in the Foreign Service with the U.S. Information Agency, I was attending the State Department’s retirement course and wondering what was next. While reading a local Capitol Hill newspaper, I noticed a classified ad for a “movie reviewer.” I applied and was hired, and have been writing about motion pictures ever since, thus indulging a desire I have held since I was about four. One is hardly born a movie reviewer, of course; one starts as a movie-lover. As one of the last pre-television kids, my youthful entertain- ment in Fargo, North Dakota, was the picture show. Then, at the university in my hometown, I discovered foreign-language films and was captured by their exoticism, an enthusiasm further stimulated by graduate study in Germany. After Germany, motivated in part by foreign climes that the cinema had shown me, I entered the Foreign Service with USIA. There, as a press and cultural offi- cer, I was able to indulge my film bent, finding ways to program and write about movies of all types. At that retirement seminar, I was relaxed about what came next. My whole life had mostly been one of blessed serendipity and acceptance—as with Charles Dickens’ Mr. Micawber—“in case anything turned up.” With a good pension and a settled domestic life, I didn’t feel I had to work at something that paid, as did some anxious colleagues in the seminar. When I started reviewing in 1993, I was looking forward to nailing some cinematic turkeys with blistering put downs. What I found out, however, was that the hard knock might be fun, but it was also facile and fleeting. I quickly came to focus on films that moved me or interested me, and thus might interest those for whom I was writing. I was so lucky. I have kind editors who allowme to ruminate in my monthly column; I write about what interests me. I don’t write about the Hollywood blockbuster of the week but prefer to do riffs on the quirky independent effort or the intriguing new foreign flick. In discovering any good movie for myself, I aim to trigger interest in it for my reader. If I were looking back on my callow self, how would I advise myself on a life after the Foreign Service? Probably this way: Embrace variety and change. My whole career was comprised of such change and I thrived on it. The passion that the Service nurtured—new environments, cross-cultural communications, and crafting analytical critiques—led me, in a way, to my second act, my film life. And it’s been a great gig, just like the first one. Mike Canning spent 28 years as a press and culture officer with the U.S. Information Agency, serving in eight countries on four continents before retiring in 1993. He headed USIA operations in Kampala and Buenos Aires, and was deputy chief for U.S. Information Service operations in Brazil. He also served in Nicaragua, Peru, Kenya, Iran and was press officer in Rome. Since retirement, Canning has reviewed movies for Hill Rag in Washington, D.C., for more than 20 years. He is also a freelance writer on film, politics and public affairs. His com- bined interests in film and national politics led to the publication of his 2012 book, Hollywood on the Potomac . COURTESYOFMIKECANNING Mike Canning at Landmark E Street Cinema in downtown Washington, D.C., where he sees many of the movies he reviews.