The death of movies has been announced many times before, as has the death of movie critics. But it’s plain that everything about film (as with so much else in our society) has been going through an enormous paradigm shift in recent years… and not just because of the pandemic we’re all enduring. Indeed, the pandemic likely only accelerated changes that were already in motion. Ever cheaper and more readily accessible technology, including the internet, has been lowing the barriers to both making films and distributing them since the beginning of the new millennium, but the stay-at-home orders of the past two years pushed new releases, and hence audiences, to move to streaming with a speed that likely wouldn’t have happened sans deadly airborne virus.
The internet opened the floodgates of criticism, too, of course, which means there are more film critics than ever, but also easy ways for ordinary movie watchers to register their opinions, such as via comments or likes on streaming services. We are awash with opinions about film.
What does film criticism mean to you in 2022? What are you looking for in film criticism now… and are you finding it? Has any of this changed since the pandemic? Since the rise of Netflix, Prime, etc? Do critics matter as much when crowdsourced algorithms can direct you to films… or are critics even more important resources for navigating the overwhelming number of new releases we are being bombarded with? But how can that work when critics are overwhelmed by all the new movies, too?
I’m very curious to get as much feedback from readers here as possible, because — in my 25th year at this racket — I am struggling to find a footing, struggling to figure out where to go from here. Do you want more reviews of big films, or more reviews of smaller films you might not hear about otherwise? Long, in-depth reviews, or short capsules? Do you find my Weekend Watchlist streaming guides useful in deciding what to stream? Would you like thematic roundups of films, or more coverage of classic movies? (Honestly, I suspect the answer is going to be “Yes, please, all of the above,” and I am going to try to do all of these.) Something else entirely?
I guess it all boils down to this: Do critics still matter, and if so, in what ways?
(You can also discuss this at Substack or Patreon, if you prefer. You don’t need to be a paying subscriber to comment, but you will need to register with either site to do so.)
I very rarely read reviews to help me decide which movies to see, or if I do, I try to make it the most simplified versions possible (e.g., your red-yellow-green system, or star ratings from the people I follow on Letterboxd) because I like to go in as unspoiled as possible, and because it’s not that hard to find the movies I want to see these days. Hell, if anything that’s the opposite of the problem I have, with my backlog as large as it is.
For me, the film criticism I read and enjoy is criticism that can talk intelligently about the movie I’ve just watched, pointing things out that I missed or helping clarify why something did or didn’t click for me in a way I couldn’t put my finger on. And also criticism that realizes it’s important to be critical of the stuff we like, and that nothing is apolitical, that it’s important to consider what attitudes the movie is putting forth and potentially reinforcing/undermining in regards to racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. As always, saying something “shouldn’t be about politics” just means you’re making a political statement that you’re fine with the status quo, and I want my movie reviews from someone who understands that. These are the reasons I was drawn to this site *mumblemumble* years ago and have been a loyal reader and MicroPatron/Kickstarter/Patreon ever since.
I enjoy MaryAnn’s writing anyway, but the specific uses I get out of the site are several, in no particular order:
So unhelpfully I say “yes please, all of the above”. But I’m a long-time reader and one of the reasons I’ve hung around here while I’ve given up on other reviewers and critics is that the attitudes and styles here are ones that agree with me.
Like Lennon, I also avoid spoilers and am most interested in reading a bunch of critical deep-dives as soon as I’ve just finished something and am buzzing to dissect it. It’s also really hard to find that kind of content—and for games maybe even more than movies—because what do you call it in the search? A “criticism?” All you get are superficial consumer “reviews” to wade through. Which is why I like having at least one trusted source to check first to see if she had any Deep Thoughts on the thing I just watched. If not, I’ll probably flip through some of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes that look like they might be more than a couple of paragraphs long and then give up.
For movies that everyone talks about that I don’t intend to see, I like getting your high-level impressions so that I can add them to my own hunches and have a substitute opinion on a movie I’ll likely never watch—or maybe you’ll convince me it’s worth seeing after all. I feel like I have less need for discovering hidden gems because I see so few movies anyway and there’s just so much stuff out there, I’ll never be without something to see. That said, I am forever indebted to you for clueing me in to What We Do in the Shadows when it was just a weird unknown with extremely limited release. Now that felt like a discovery.
Streaming roundups are not really my thing because I generally binge long series and have plenty to watch. What I would actually love is more streaming tv critviews (no, that’s a terrible term, forget I said that), maybe of a whole season at a time, because I’d really love to read your take on those after I watch something really interesting. Like when I finished Midnight Mass, and other Mike Flanagan series, and felt like it must be up your alley and wondered immediately if you’d written anything about it. I know you don’t do tv much, but I used to enjoy when you were writing about Doctor Who from time to time, for instance.
P.S. Also a proud patron…how do I get the badge, again? (Thanks for all that you do!)
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The thing about TV coverage, especially as you suggest, is that it takes SO MUCH time. I’ll see if I can figure out a way to make it happen…
Once I KNOW a critic’s general view of films and life, I can read a negative review and know I’m gonna like the film. Similarly, some positive reviews warn me away. When MA real-l-ly likes a film she’d normally not like, I sit up, take notice, and put that film on my to see list. Oh, and I must know if the dog lives.
Incidentally, one annoying failure of movie criticism is that when I looked up The Power of the Dog on “Does the Dog Die,” while it does inform me that no dog dies, I couldn’t figure out if the movie actually HAS a prominent dog, or if it’s just some art-film metaphorical device. This is important information, people!
https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/536048
For all its faults, the Channing Tatum vehicle Dog does not have such ambiguity.
Most of the time with major releases, I will figure out I want to see it, and perhaps even buy my ticket, before seeing any reviews. There are exceptions, though. I didn’t go to see The Last Duel in the theater. Looking at the trailers, cast, director, etc., it looked like it could either be phenomenally good, or a long, boring slog, and I really wanted to see MaryAnn’s take to help me decide.
More often, reading a review from MaryAnn of something I’ve never heard of leads me to discovering obscure favorites. Faith Based is a recent example I recall.
On other fronts, I’d definitely like to more reviews of “classic movies,” or even not-so-classics. One gap in the online movie landscape is retrospective reviews, especially stuff like Forgotbusters, Nathan Rabin’s retrospective looks back at movies that were pretty big hits at the time, but that left little to no enduring cultural footprints.
High on my to-do list is to get to older films on a regular basis as part of my Classic Film Virgin series (which I’ve only barely begun).