In his 11 years on the air, triple j’s resident film expert – or rather, “movie guy” – Marc Fennell has become the most prominent voice in Aussie film criticism this side of David and Margaret, his weekly reviews hitting our stereos every week and always proving to be a great listen no matter how little interest we may have had in seeing the actual movie.
But now, he’s announced that he’s reviewed his last flick for the station, and is ready to move on.
“I’ve been That. Movie. Guy for almost my entire adult life,” Fennell announced in a blog post this morning, going on to detail the approximately 734 movie reviews he’s recorded for the station over the course of 11 years at the station, and his sleepless nights as he also toiled away on SBS’ The Feed or ABC’s Hungry Beast and Download This Show.
“Sitting here alone tonight in an empty, cavernous public broadcaster feels somehow both anti-climatic and entirely appropriate,” he adds, before swiftly turning his goodbye into a job ad.
“I think now is the time for someone new,” he says, “and I’m pretty sure the next person will be 100% better than me.
“Because that person… is probably you.”
Fennel explains that triple j are now on the hunt for someone to take his established format and run with it, and implores aspiring movie critics to “Be that person who decides the way we *should* be talking about movies and TV in 2017. Make it your own. Make it awesome. And, above all, make it better than this dickhead.”
Fennell has built a career interviewing film icons like director Quentin Tarantino
He will, of course, still be heavily involved in film across a variety of other platforms, and will be devoting more of his time to the newly-launched not-for-profit called Media Diversity Australia – but it would be a difficult goodbye regardless.
Taking a turn for the sentimental, Fennell explains how station boss Kingsmill “introduced me to my new favourite music but also gave me reasons to appreciate the music I hated.”
“Sure, they played a bit more Jack Johnson than any of us would like to admit,” he added, “but – look – everyone fucks up occasionally.”
Despite that particular musical disagreement, Fennell is thankful for his time at the station, and everything that’s come since.
“Thank you triple j,” he concludes. “Thank you for the horizon.”
So, if you’ve been inspired by Marc Fennell’s work over the last decade and think you can pack that same amount of humour and insight in weekly two-minute doses, well, this sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime – it certainly was for him.
You can read the entire goodbye on his blog.
