Brian Formo started reviewing movies for The Patriot Ledger at Centennial High School (Boise, Idaho) where he gave Terrance Malick's The Thin Red Line a D-. He's been making amends for that ever since.
As a young man he thought he'd always be a film critic. Before enrolling in college, he started reviewing movies at The Spokesman Review in Spokane, Washington. He moved to the southeast and spent his college 20s as many do: involved in music and art. A little lost, he majored in English. While curating a DIY art space, he also worked as a copywriter/proofreader for Kung Fu Magazine. He didn't know Tai Chi, but he got cool shoes out of it. He even got to meet Lou Reed (who travels with his sensei). Brian then worked for the esteemed indie label K Records (exploding the teen underground since 1988) in Olympia, Washington for three years. He wrote their one sheets, established their social media presence, and barraged music writers with coverage ideas. That old, familiar film itch came back after a chance encounter with Steven Zaillian at a gallery/studio space Brian helped operate in Olympia. They met the day that Rooney Mara was cast in Zaillian's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and had an in depth movie business conversation. SZ said, "You should be in LA." Brian moved down to Los Angeles in 2011, worked on a few independent films, and then began reviewing films and interviewing filmmakers for The Huffington Post at the AFI Film Festival.
Craving more bylines and more film write-ups, Brian came to CraveOnline after meeting William Bibbiani at the French Consulate. That was in 2013. Since then, he's been writing reviews, going to junkets and talking a lot with his hands on camera. He's now a pop culture correspondent for Complex and writes features that get inked in Flaunt and MovieMaker magazines. He wants to tell stories and one of them could be yours.
In print, Brian is still making amends for his Thin Red Line takedown, as Malick is one of his favorite filmmakers. You can email him at brianformo@gmail.com and see some football tweets before he deletes them at @BrianEmilFormo.
