On movie Criticism pt.2
Context, people, context!
Context is usually dropped from a movie review to form a semblance of objectivity. But it should be required for a full and balanced review. A kids movie will not entertain an adult, a teen grossout flick will not entertain someone who appreciates decency, a melodrama won't entertain a kid.
The worst of the offenders on this count are the critics that write for the Globe and Mail**. These guys are the forced-laugh-at-a-pretentious-art-flick reviewers. No only do they forget to mention that "Batman: Begins" was an action movie, they say that it's mindless and and the plot lurches to and fro without direction without tell us why they think that. Opinions are what these critics are selling but without the background the words that are coming from their mouths mean nothing. Thanks for nothing, I read your thousand word review and I am no better off than I was before I read it!
Ebert and Roeper do the same thing, they hand out criticisms as two old men rather than trying to appreciate the films from the point of view of the demographic the movie is shooting for. They never say "The new Disney animated film is great for kids but for parents it will be agony, Thumbs Up". Though these guys have surprized me with their opinions(Shopgirl, two thumbs up?!?).
Movie criticism needs a paradigm shift about how we go about doing our job. We can't be Waldorf and Statler, the readers deserve better.
**Over the summer months I got the Globe daily, since then I haven't read the paper but I doubt anything ahs changed.**
Context is usually dropped from a movie review to form a semblance of objectivity. But it should be required for a full and balanced review. A kids movie will not entertain an adult, a teen grossout flick will not entertain someone who appreciates decency, a melodrama won't entertain a kid.
The worst of the offenders on this count are the critics that write for the Globe and Mail**. These guys are the forced-laugh-at-a-pretentious-art-flick reviewers. No only do they forget to mention that "Batman: Begins" was an action movie, they say that it's mindless and and the plot lurches to and fro without direction without tell us why they think that. Opinions are what these critics are selling but without the background the words that are coming from their mouths mean nothing. Thanks for nothing, I read your thousand word review and I am no better off than I was before I read it!
Ebert and Roeper do the same thing, they hand out criticisms as two old men rather than trying to appreciate the films from the point of view of the demographic the movie is shooting for. They never say "The new Disney animated film is great for kids but for parents it will be agony, Thumbs Up". Though these guys have surprized me with their opinions(Shopgirl, two thumbs up?!?).
Movie criticism needs a paradigm shift about how we go about doing our job. We can't be Waldorf and Statler, the readers deserve better.
**Over the summer months I got the Globe daily, since then I haven't read the paper but I doubt anything ahs changed.**
posted by Danny Smooth at
10/29/2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home