Written on 24 February 2019
The industry had blackballed him.
After the fracas caused at the press screening of The Abstractor, when he poured an entire bottle of red wine on Jeff Goldblum’s wife, Sevvy was banned from all press screenings.
Still, his reviews were still incredibly popular. They could be nasty, like when he called Tim Burton ‘someone causing a nuisance in a high end toy store’, but he always explained exactly why. And no one was more passionate about the medium. When Sevvy loved a movie his adoration poured out of every sentence in a way that would actually enhance the movie. A rare talent. But he was a total asshole, that was for sure.
So, he kept his job, but was forced to go to preview screenings with the general public to write his reviews, which he was apoplectic about. He demanded they send him screeners, but all the studios refused.
And he became a story himself. He would lob popcorn at anyone who talked, stood up, sniffed, talked or moved during the film. He would berate punters for laughing at jokes he didn't deem as funny, and he would openly scoff when the film wasn't doing it for him.
After a while, people would come to viewings to watch Sevvy watch the movie. They would deliberately antagonize him into throwing popcorn and openly laugh at his pronouncements.
And he became a joke, a caricature. His reviews stopped being taken seriously, he lost his job and ended up touring the country as a professional heckler. Sevvy died suddenly aged 56. A talent so misused he was a perfect allegory for the movie industry as a whole.