Richard Ades
Affiliate: Columbus Free Press, toplesstown.org, columbustheater.org | View Richard’s Reviews
Richard Ades was the arts editor, theater critic and occasional movie critic for The Other Paper (TOP) before it was discontinued in 2013.
Adam Barney
Affiliate: The Film Coterie | View Adam’s Reviews
As a lifelong film fanatic, Adam Barney’s childhood love of movies was not easy on his parents, who had to field calls from angry parents who were upset that he was screening horror movies at sleepovers. As an adult, Adam was spending all of his limited vacation time from work attending film festivals, so he made the responsible decision to become his own boss, thus freeing him up to travel. Along the way, Adam became friends with Roger Legg and they formed the Film Coterie out of their shared devotion to the silver screen.
Since forming the Film Coterie, Adam routinely covers Fantastic Fest and the Overlook Film Festival. Locally, Adam is a familiar face at the Gateway Film Center and is a vocal champion of all oddball and cult film screenings. Working his way up through the ranks of the Nightmares Film Festival, Adam is now the lead judge for midnight features.
Sam Brady
Affiliates: I Am Sam Reviews, 614Now | View Sam’s Reviews
Sam Brady is a film critic who has been reviewing movies since 2013, but enjoying them for his entire life. Though running his site I Am Sam Reviews for a few years now, he has recently become a contributor to 614NOW.
Logan Burd
Affiliate: Cinema or Cine-meh? | View Logan’s Reviews
Logan Burd has been watching and reviewing movies persistently since 2011. He graduated with a degree in English from Heidelberg University in Tiffin, OH, and is an editor at McGraw-Hill Education in Columbus.
Kevin Carr
Affiliates: 7mpictures.com, FilmSchoolRejects.com | View Kevin’s Reviews
Michael Cavender
Michael CavenderAffiliates: CineDump.com | PopHorror.com | View Michael’s Reviews
Mike Cavender’s film education began as a child in the dingy aisles of small town Ohio mom and pop video stores. Eventually, he graduated from the Ohio State University with bachelor’s degrees in English and Film Studies. He has now called Columbus his home for almost three decades. In between screening Godzilla films for his son and trying to convince his wife to watch low budget slashers, he can usually be found at the Lennox multiplex, Gateway Film Center, or the Drexel Theatre.
Bill Clark
Affiliate: FromTheBalcony.com | View Bill’s Reviews
Bill Clark has been part of the online film review community for twenty years, starting at the age of sixteen. His first project was The DVD Line, one of the first online DVD review sites. After The DVD Line closed its doors in the summer of 2000, Bill continued to write for DVD Angle for a period of time, as well as The Florida Sun, which at the time was a side project for then Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough (now host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”). From The Balcony was founded in late 2003 and now contains over 500 reviews.
Bill is a graduate of Ohio University with a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communication and a minor in Film. He is a member of the Online Film Critics Society and Columbus Ohio Film Critics Association.
Olie Coen
Affiliates: Archer Avenue, DVD Talk | View Olie’s Reviews
Olie Coen is a stay-at-home dad, a sports fan, and a film critic. He writes movie reviews as part of his website Archer Avenue and also for the website DVD Talk. He is a native of Zanesville, OH, has an Associate of Arts degree from CSCC, and resides in Northeast Columbus.
John DeSando
John DeSandoAffiliate: 90.5 WCBE | View John’s Reviews
John DeSando is co-host of WCBE 90.5 FM’s “It’s Movie Time”, “Cinema Classics”, and “On the Marquee” in Columbus, Ohio, at 3 and 8 PM on Fridays. His reviews and on-demand programs are available in the Public Arts/Movie section online at WCBE.org.
He received his BA in English from Georgetown University and MA and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. He has been professor of humanities and academic vice president at Franklin University, where he currently teaches film, pop culture, and graduate studies. He received the Bailey Graduate Teaching Award.
DeSando has received Silver Microphone, Communicator, and LA Press Club national honors. He is a past president of the Kiwanis Club of Columbus. He is in Who’s Who in American Education, America, and the World, serves on the boards of Shadowbox and Early Music in Columbus, and was vice chairman of The Film Council of Greater Columbus.
Johnny DiLoretto
Affiliates: 90.5 WCBE, PencilStorm.com
Brock Engi
Affiliate: Movie Talk With Brock
Chris Feil
Chris FeilAffiliates: FilmMixTape.com, The Film Experience, This Had Oscar Buzz podcast | View Chris’s Reviews
Chris Feil is a Wright State University graduate and Columbus native. He contributes to The Film Experience and writes at filmmixtape, in addition to co-hosting the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. He is also a member of GALECA and OFCS, and has been published at Decider and Paste.
Mark Jackson
Affiliate: MovieManJackson.com, ThatMomentIn.com, Cinema Recap Podcast | View Mark’s Reviews
Always a lover of films, one Mark Jackson, at the behest of many a coworkers in his office, decided to launch MovieManJackson in 2014, a self-run review website offering his thoughts of many recent new movies and sometimes older, random ones. Since 2016, he has additionally been a contributor to ThatMomentIn.com. Mark is a 2012 graduate of the University of Dayton, and has lived in Columbus since 2013. You can typically find him at Marcus Crosswoods, Gateway, AMC Lennox, or if he’s feeling frisky, Brothers and/or BBR.
Brad Keefe
Affiliate: Columbus Alive | View Brad’s Reviews
K.G. Kline
Affiliate: 90.5 WCBE
Kristin Dreyer Kramer
Affiliates: NightsAndWeekends.com, 90.5 WCBE | View Kristin’s Reviews
Though she started her writing career as an advertising copywriter, Kristin Dreyer Kramer soon discovered that writing nice things about people who didn’t deserve it generally made her cranky. In 2002, she founded NightsAndWeekends.com, which allows her to be snarky and critical (not to mention bitter and cynical) full-time. And she’s much happier for it.
A native of the Midwest, Kristin briefly did time in New England before she and her husband, Paul, moved to Columbus in 2004.
Adam Kuhn
Adam KuhnAffiliate: Corndog Chats | View Adam’s Reviews
Adam Kuhn was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He attended the University of Cincinnati, where he was a contributor to the student newspaper, The News Record, writing film reviews. He was also a contributor to the student radio station, Bearcast Radio, hosting two radio programs including a film review and discussion program entitled ‘Once Upon a Time in the Movies’. In 2009, Adam founded his site, Corndog Chats, where he has been blogging and writing film reviews ever since.
Roger Legg
Roger LeggAffiliates: The Film Coterie, Faith and Film | View Roger’s Reviews
Roger first fell in love with movies going to the drive-in with his family to watch classics like The Apple Dumpling Gang. In high school he discovered classic Hollywood and began his life long love affair with the films of Jimmy Stewart. (Mr. Smith goes to Washington his favorite) This passion grew in college as he studied film and finally blossomed in 2016 when he and Adam Barney started the Film Coterie podcast. Roger also writes about Faith and Film on his blog faithandfilm.wordpress.com
Hope Madden
Affiliates: MaddWolf.com, Columbus Underground, UK Film Review, Madd at the Movies, Columbus Radio Group, Saga Communications radio stations, WTTE-TV | View Hope’s Reviews
Paul Markoff
Paul MarkoffAffiliate: Filmbound
Paul Markoff is the co-producer and co-host of the podcast Filmbound. He was the co-producer and co-host of Now Playing, a film review program on WOCC-TV 3 (Westerville, OH) that ran from 1997 to 2017. He has also contributed film criticism as a special to the Westerville News and Public Opinion. Paul has served as host of “Behind the Scenes” on WOCC-TV 3 and “Jobs Now” on GTC-3 (Government Television Channel 3, Columbus, OH), as well as anchor on GTC-3’s daily news program. He has served as a sports writer for The BG News, and a play-by-play and color commentator for WBGU Radio (Bowling Green, OH). He has a B.S. in Education from Bowling Green State University, with a major in Sports Management and a minor in Journalism. Paul, his wife Andrea, and daughter Grace reside in Canal Winchester, OH.
Dennis O’Leary
Affiliates: TikTok | View Dennis’s Reviews
Lori Pearson
Affiliates: Kids-in-Mind.com, Critics.com
Mark Pfeiffer
Affiliates: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | Filmbound | View Mark’s Reviews
A film critic since 1997, Mark Pfeiffer is active in the Columbus film community. His reviews appear on his own site, Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema and on the podcast Filmbound. He was the co-producer and co-host of Now Playing, a bi-weekly, half-hour movie review show that ran on WOCC-TV3 for 550 episodes from 1997 to 2017.
A voracious moviegoer, Mark has also been a programmer for the Deep Focus Film Festival and a juror for the Columbus International Film and Video Festival. The Ohio native is Assistant Director of Television, in charge of Production, at Otterbein University.
Melissa Starker
Affiliate: Columbus Alive | View Melissa’s Reviews
Brandon Thomas
Affiliate: MaddWolf.com
A film critic for Maddwolf since 2018, Brandon developed a love of cinema at an early age through an irrational fear of Charlie Chaplin. Growing up, Brandon spent many weekends at the small two-screen theater in his hometown where eventually he found his first real job as a projectionist.
A librarian by day, Brandon spends his evenings devouring new-to-him grindhouse movies, and watching any of the “Star Wars” movies when he should be catching up on French New Wave.
Rachel Willis
Affiliates: MaddWolf.com | View Rachel’s Reviews
George Wolf
Affiliates: MaddWolf.com, UK Film Review, Columbus Underground, Screen Wolf, Columbus Radio Group, Saga Communications radio stations, WTTE-TV | View George’s Reviews
Jason Zingale
Affiliate: Bullz-Eye.com | View Jason’s Reviews
Nathan Zoebl
Affiliate: Psycho Drive-In | Blog | View Nathan’s Reviews
Nathan Zoebl was told that a passion for movies was in his blood since he was conceived at a movie convention. While scientifically questionable, he does remember a childhood where he would wake up Saturday mornings, bounce on his parents’ bed, and watch Siskel and Ebert’s syndicated TV show. At age 17, he began writing movie reviews and has been unable to stop ever since. He graduated from Capital University in 2004 with a BA in English and currently works as a high school teacher and a professional screenwriter.