Affirmative action in action: is Elvis Mitchell the Jayson Blair of film critics?

CinemaRetro reports:

Elvis Mitchell has had some pretty high profile gigs. In an era in which highly paid film critics are becoming as rare as leisure suits, Mitchell has landed some major positions including reviewer for the New York Times. Mitchell left that job in 2004 and has been attached to various other positions with different venues.

In most cases, he left these positions under mysterious or strange circumstances. Last January, Mitchell was announced as the chief film critic for the web site Movieline.com. However, his recent negative review of the movie Source Code opened up a mystery that would rival the plot of the thriller.

Mitchell, who had been sent an early script of the movie, made reference to the character played by Jeffrey Wright smoking a pipe. Mitchell was presumed to have based his review on the final cut of the film. In fact, the director, Duncan Jones, pointed out that the character never actually smokes in a pipe in the final version of the film. Mitchell’s review actually makes a sarcastic remark about the pipe scene being unrealistic.

Mitchell promised to give an explanation, but the implication among skeptics is that he may not have actually attended a screening of the final cut, despite having reviewed the movie.