Check out this review of BAD NEWS BEARS by the “man who brought auteurism to America,” Andrew Sarris:

“[…] why am I leading off this week’s column with a movie, the subject and genre of which I have found singularly unappetizing for all of my adult life? The answer involves a resurgence of my auteurist inclinations. Since I decided recently that I was going to live forever, I figured that I had enough time to update The American Cinema, Directors and Directions 1929-1968 to the 21st Century, beginning with Richard Linklater, whom I am tentatively placing in the category ‘The Far Side of Paradise’.

“Still in his 40’s, Mr. Linklater may have a stab at making my pantheon of English-language auteurs, which takes in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the British Isles. Among the other recent auteurs I am following (though sometimes from a great distance) are: Robert Altman, Harold Becker, Robert Benton, the Coen Brothers, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Clint Eastwood, the Farrelly Brothers, Peter Jackson, Jim Jarmusch, Ken Loach, David Lynch, Terrence Malick, Michael Mann, Errol Morris, Mike Nichols, David O. Russell, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Gus Van Sant and Terry Zwigoff … but I am still very early in my research.”

All this in a piece on Richard Linklater.
Source: http://www.observer.com/culture_sarrismovies.asp.

Our gain, wouldn’t you agree? Kent Jones, in an amazing piece from Film Comment, declared Sarris the victor in the “Sarris-Kael imbroglio”.
Source: http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/5-6-2005/sarris.htm.

It’s refreshing to see that an American critic will attempt to break a trend that’s lasted almost 7 decades, and to which figures like Ferguson, Agee and Sontag eventually succumbed. It consists of the unfortunate scene in which an influential tastemaker slips into nostalgic mode, into “spiritual paralysis,” lamenting the films and the film cultures of the past at the expense of the vibrant present. Nostalgia does have its place in recouping films long forgotten or overlooked, but this has almost always been done by American critics as a bankhanded shot at the movies of today. One more feather in Sarris’ cap.