Fame

With so much time watching famous people do their thing, you'd think the film critic would have a great chance at becoming famous. You'd be wrong.

Sure, you may have heard of a few. Before they passed, Siskel and Ebert were at the top of the heap because they were great as the Odd Couple on their TV show and had that Abbott and Costello/Felix and Oscar vibe down pat.

You probably won't have a TV show.

 
Hashtag Sarcasm. (Source)

Pauline Kael was the Audrey Hepburn of film critics, who achieved a taste of fame with film buffs and New Yorker readers, a cult within themselves. Good luck with that; we hear New York's a really easy place to make it.

Even Gene Shalit, the mustachioed Super Mario of the film review world, is best-known for being the target of awkward jokes on older episodes of Family Guy. If you want fame as a film writer, go write a film. If you can't write a film, write for TMZ.

At least you might get close enough to smell the stars.