Critical Connections

GOOD VIBRATIONS is a brilliant roof-raising musical from 2012 about making a difference in the world by being yourself. It’s the kind of film that makes you fall in love with life. And it was the last movie about which Ken Hanke and I wholeheartedly agreed.

Hanke, our local newspaper film critic in Asheville, N.C., recently passed away at the too-young age of 61. His byline identified him as “Cranky Hanke,” but he had a generous heart. He knew that good film criticism requires knowing three things, at least: something about cinema, something about how to write well, and something about life. The first of these comes naturally to people who watch enough good movies. The second is part gift to be channeled, part skill to be nurtured. As for the third, well, we all know something about life—the trick is whether or not we’re willing to let what we know of ourselves be known in our work.

Ken Hanke was a critic who believed his own opinions, but didn’t impose them on others. He understood film criticism as a conversation between movie and audience, in which being right isn’t as important as being authentic.

This kind of critical engagement is often ignored in favor of mere criticizing—reacting, not responding, snap judgments instead of considered reflection. “That’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen” limits the possibility of conversation to discover more of what the movie might be inviting us to. I want to know why you think it’s the worst (or best). I want to be invited into a conversation about authenticity and what it is to live better in the light of what artists and other provocateurs are trying to tell us.

Hanke wrote for a local community—he was rooted in a place and was in dialogue with the people of that place. He knew who his words were for. What he knew about life, art, and words he shared with a community that, in some small way, he helped form. His words pulled us into a citywide conversation about beauty and life, helping to lead us into knowing something more about ourselves.

Good Vibrations climaxes with its hero, the Belfast punk social activist Terri Hooley, leading a ragbag community in transforming Sonny Bono’s “Laugh at Me” into an anthem for making resistance to oppression into a work of joyous and dramatic art. “This world’s got a lot of space / And if they don’t like my face / It ain’t me that’s going anywhere,” they sing. Thanks, Ken, for being a resilient voice who wanted to experience and share the joy of being cranky for the right reasons.