Teen Movie Critic is a Dream Machine Site The Dream Machine --- The Imagination of the World Wide Web

Since April, Davidson has been "Teen Movie Critic" on the Internet's World Wide Web, an international computer network with millions of users. He writes reviews that are read by about 3,000 people a day, according to a counting mechanism in a computer run by his father.

Davidson believes teenagers need a film critic their own age.

"I think a lot of adult film reviewers are relics because they put 'Casablanca' on their No. 1 film list [as a recent group of Star Tribune critics did], but they don't put on films like 'Schindler's List' or 'Pulp Fiction.' . . . Kids under 18 have incredibly different points of view on films. I just decided to give them a real teenager's point of view."

Davidson's instant worldwide success would be unthinkable anywhere but on the rapidly growing Internet, where anyone with a personal computer, programming skills and a few dollars in access fees can publish whatever he or she wants, regardless of experience.

While Davidson has little experience as a movie critic, he is a lifelong movie fan. His mother, Gypsy Claybourne, said her son has been allowed to watch movies without censorship since he was a baby. "He learned to read because he wanted to read the TV Guide," she said.

"I watched films like 'Platoon' and 'Born on the Fourth of July' before I was 11, and saw all the horrors of Vietnam," Davidson said.

He learned to write movie reviews from reading them, and says he was particularly influenced by critic Roger Ebert.

"I find that Ebert goes a lot more for the emotional aspects of movies, whereas [his TV colleague Gene] Siskel is kind of an intellectual snob," Davidson said. "I don’t mind if I cry at films."

Officially 'cool'

Netscape Editor Eliot Bergson said Teen Movie Critic made the "What's Cool" list because he was impressed with Davidson's maturity as a reviewer. "He gave four stars to the 1971 movie of 'Macbeth,' and trashed 'Pet Sematary Two.' While he was doing movie reviews for teens and speaking their language, he was doing intelligent reviews. And he was 16," Bergson said.

Davidson, a shy but bright teenager, doesn't take his Internet fame too seriously. "I'm just an ordinary 16-year-old kid with glasses," he said.

Davidson mixes reviews of new film releases and rental movies because he can't afford to pay movie-theater prices to see all the new releases. As a result, he's well-informed about films from the past four decades and has developed eclectic cinematic tastes. He prefers "Macbeth" to "Reality Bites," and his favorite actor is Marlon Brando.

He prefers emotionally charged films such as "Schindler's List." He doesn't shy away from violent films, but favors the ones that use violence to make a point. "I feel that there are two types of violent films: one that's gratuitous stuff like 'The Wild Bunch' and 'Die Hard,' and one that's trying to make a point about violence being unnecessary. 'Blue Velvet' is actually a film that shows just how dark and sick people like Dennis Hopper's character really are," Davidson said.

He also sees violence as a legitimate way to be funny. "Like that scene in 'Pulp Fiction' where they kill a guy by accident in the back seat of their car, and they treat it like little kids would treat breaking a vase or something."

His favorite comedies are Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day," in which the main character must live one day of his life over many times until he gets it right, and "Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's 1963 black comedy about nuclear war.

Short stuff

Claybourne said her son's reviews have been kept short because the family found that short items were more likely to be read on the Internet, which is awash in too much free information for most people to absorb.

As for absorbing information, Davidson takes exception to the stereotype that younger people today have short attention spans and are easily bored. He said he doesn't mind old films that move slowly compared to recent movies and television.

"Some of those films are really tense. Like in 'Psycho,' there's a scene of the detective who's trying to stop Norman Bates as the detective’s going up the stairs. The camera follows his steps, and at the top of the steps we see a door open slowly and light pour out, and we know something's going to happen. . . . That scene scared me when I saw it, and I think it was because it moved slowly, but it was building up the suspense."

Global e-mail

"I've learned not to write back angry letters," said Davidson, who doesn't want to become known as a critic who can't take criticism.

Despite his home on the Internet, Davidson's expertise isn't in computers. He relied on his father, programmer Willy Chaplin, to set up the Teen Movie Critic home page through an Internet computer operated by Skypoint Communications Inc. in Plymouth. He spends about three hours a week writing his reviews on his father's home-office computer, and his father helps with spelling and grammar.

The youngest of 15 children (both his parents had children from previous marriages), Davidson is the last one at home. His parents have opted for home school, and in addition to writing movie reviews he is studying kick-boxing and yearns to become an actor.

"I've got to admit that I might not keep this [movie reviewing] up too long. I'm only going to be a teen for about two more years, and after that I'm going to try to get an acting job and go into the theater," he said. "I recently auditioned for a part in the play 'Our Town.' I didn't get the part, but I'm very determined."

Reprinted with the permission of the Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. Paul

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