Why Movie Criticism is More Important Now than Ever

 

Welcome to my new film blog! A little background about me. I studied film production and criticism in college and have been doing freelance writing online for the past year. This blog will be a space where I review new movies, return to older films that strike my interest, or talk about art and narrative in general.

Of course, there is the underlying question of why start a film blog now? And I agree, that this was probably a tumultuous time to  buckle down on this blog. After all, everything about film is up in the air at the moment. Theatres are still trying to recover from the pandemic, while also continuing to compete with streaming. So the traditional model of movie exhibition and the theatre going experience is well past its golden age. 

In addition, it feels like many people are distrustful of film critics. At least once month, I see someone complaining on social media how out of touch professional critics are, and point to the divide between Rotten Tomato's audience and critic meters on a particular movie to paint critics as out of touch or elitist (hence the dark joke I chose for this blog's name). After all, why read a lengthy review when you can just look up thousands of quick takes on Reddit or Twitter?

Rather than dissuade me from writing about film, these factors made it feel important to write critically. With the power structure and distribution models changing in the industry, there is a real risk of everything we watch becoming more homogenized. So when real gems that attempt something different come out, they need people to champion them. And the curation these types of blogs provide are invaluable, especially in the glut of content available to everyone with streaming. 'Cause let's face it, people's time is valuable, and no one wants to waste two hours on a movie that leaves zero impact after the screen goes dark.

This blog will be very informal. So I won't focus on assigning letter grades, scales, or stars to a movie's value. Those are really arbitrary, numerical systems that have no room for nuance. Instead, I'd rather meet art on its own terms, and focus on intent, craftsmanship, and who the movie was meant for. there are plenty of movies that I love which are trashy, lowbrow, or super campy, but they work because the filmmakers meant for it to be that way and know how to pull it off (hello Roger Moore's Bond movies and classic '80s action flicks). On the flip side, there are several "serious", emotional movies that fall flat for me. I'm sure I'll manage to say something that angers everyone after doing this blog long enough.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. If you are engaged in what I write, please feel free to interact with me in the comment section. I want to know what other people think and how art speaks to them specifically. That's my reason behind the blog in the first place, to share movies and my experience with them.