Lights, camera, action… CRITIQUE! Students at Urbana Middle School may not be aware that their teacher Mr. Chuck Koplinski is much more than a Middle School film teacher. Mr. Koplinski is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association who hosts the Critics Choice Awards. At this event, Mr. K (as many in the district call him) has had an opportunity to meet Spike Lee, Nicole Kidman, and Donald Glover. 

 “how we all are manipulated when we go to watch a movie by lighting and editing, and other things.”

Mr. Koplinski is really “happy and excited” that Dr. Wiemelt has given him the opportunity to teach film classes at the middle school this year after teaching English Language Arts for 28 years. “It was a time for change. Whenever I could, I would try to integrate film into my classes. They are just kids and they need a break every once in a while, away from things.” One of the things Mr. Koplinski is focused on teaching his students is to pay attention to how images are designed to manipulate, and “how we all are manipulated when we go to watch a movie by lighting and editing, and other things. Children are bombarded with video images and they don’t understand how. It’s important that [students] understand how films are put together, understand what they’re seeing [and how films]  influence our outlook on life.”

Mr. K was introduced to film at a young age by his father. “My initial interest in movies came from my father.  When I was younger we had 7 – 8 stations on TV, so choices were very limited.  My dad loved old movies and WGN-TV out of Chicago would run movies from the 30’s-50’s every night at 7 pm, at 10:30 pm and then all day and night on Sundays.  The channel was often turned to WGN, so as that was what was on most, I simply started watched these classic films and started to gravitate towards certain actors and directors.  My father and I would talk about the movies while watching them and afterwards as well. The fact that a good movie could transport me out of the everyday was something that fascinated me and as a result, I got curious around the process.  I went to the library and started to read as much as I could about every aspect of the movies. Not sure if there was an Ah-Ha moment where becoming a film critic is concerned. I wanted to be an actor or a filmmaker but circumstances took me down a different road but I never lost my interest in film. ” As you can see, Chuck Koplinski has always been fascinated with movies. In the early 2000’s he was asked if he would be interested in reviewing movies for a small independent newspaper in Champaign for $5 per week. He now reviews for WCIA, News-Gazette, Illinois Times (Springfield). Mr. Koplinski reviews four or five movies a week, and writes 2 reviews per week. Which would mean as he states, “I see all of them,” concentrating the viewing on the weekends. It takes about one hour to write a review. With all this time he spends, he says, “it’s more fun than work I don’t consider work at all. The other thing is that I only have about six hundred words. So I have to be really economical.”

He goes on to say, “More than anything else I stick to story. If you’ve got a story to tell and it’s hard to tell a story because all the stories have been told. To come up with something original is really rough. I’m bored easily. I’ve been doing this for 22 years, so there’s not much you can show me that I probably have not seen before. So if you could take a fresh take on something and take an old story and make it seem new, like Guillermo del Toro does with The Shape of Water. The shape of Water is just The Creature from the Black Lagoon, but he comes up with a different way that’s what I find to be exciting.” Mr. K has had the opportunity to meet Del Toro, twice. Many people may have mixed views on meeting directors, but Mr. K says, “He is a darling man.” Mr. K has a Del Toro’s Hell Boy poster hanging in his classroom, so you know he admires his films. “[Del Toro] grew up with monsters he considered himself not to be an attractive person. He considered himself to be outside the norm, so he was always attracted to monsters and that’s why he gravitates towards these films. Hellboy based on a comic book, he is a demon who has been pulled from hell and he is forced to live along human beings he is an outsider as well.” Mr. K adds, “[Del Toro] is great because he you know he’s constantly pushing himself. He also does things the way he wants them to be done. His movies have distinctive style and a distinctive look. And I love [and] I am always anxious when I sit down for one of his films”

We see what makes a great director, but Mr. K believes that even smart directors that are “great writers” can make bad films. All it takes is “sporadic violence that has no reason to be in the story…and cursing.” He feels, “It all has its place. You don’t just throw it out there just to do it for shock value. If we’re going along for two hours and there hasn’t been any graphic violence like being burned up by flamethrowers and all of a sudden these things appear, you’re cheating. You’re pandering to your audience you’re not being consistent with the rest of which you made.” He feels some directors start “believing his own press and start to become lazy.”

He feels it is all worth it for the Critics Choice Awards. “The first Critic’s Choice awards I intended was a blur.  It moved too fast for me to be starstruck. If I was starstruck by anyone, it would have been when I briefly met Warren Beatty.  Having grown up watching his movies and then seeing him in the flesh and getting to shake his hand was really something. I always look forward to [the Critics Choice Awards] because you have critics from across the country and we get to meet you know most everyone was in the film industry. So you know that’s always a lot of fun. It’s kind of surreal. You see them on the screen and then all of a sudden there they are in the flesh. Last year, [I] met Nicole Kidman. I met Donald a couple of years ago, he was up from Atlanta. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred [they are] very very nice people.” 

For those of you interested in critiquing film, Mr. K states, “Well all you gotta do is get some reviews, get a TV station or radio stations can and do it for about six months and then you can apply [to the Broadcast Film Critics Association].