An article on a real annoyance of mine which seems to be growing in strength, the need for many to have films they love, loved by everyone.
Note: While this article may come off as an attack specifically on slashfilm.com, I want to say that on the whole I do not have a problem with the site. It is staffed by people who wear their passion for film on their sleeves and while I am on record as having problems with certain members of staff on the site, this is no reflection on my general opinion of the staff or the writing on the site. The examples I use are endemic of a larger scale problem with film criticism these days but these articles are still what inspired the writing of this.
A few weeks back I got very annoyed. Reading slashfilm.com, a film site I check out several times a day and recommend you do the same, posted a news story bemoaning the fact that Toy Story 3 had SHOCK HORROR a bad review on Rotten Tomatoes, thus losing it its 100% Fresh rating. My simple question was this: why is this news? This is something that I asked on Twitter and the article’s author, and the site’s editor-in-chief Peter Sciretta actually responded to this and said that “Some would say the same thing about reporting box office numbers and achievements. I also have written many stories about IMDB ratings, which many would argue is even more useless — but I would argue that it is the best indication (definitely the largest sample) of mainstream public response to a film that we have” (that quote can be found here)Â and when I asked him if he would report this even if he didn’t like the film he simply replied “Yes”. Mr Sciretta also posted a similar story highlighting the fact that The Last Airbender had become the worst reviewed film of the year on RT here. While there is no way of saying whether he would have posted that story if he liked Airbender, a film that the Slashfilm crew as a whole have had a lot of mileage from slating and critiquing, the point of this article is simply whether reported or not, WHY is this news? Incidentally, I think reporting on IMDB user ratings is more worthless than reporting on RT figures BUT its somewhat harder to find articles about these and where there are, they are often critical of the ratings as a gauge of quality anyway.
I think for those that write these types of articles, it shows a need that is spreading in the film blogosphere of certain films making people feel that a universal opinion is required and this worries me. Many films in recent years have had some of the more vocal supporters get VERY angry with those that dared have something bad to say about it, something that in my memory really started kicking off with the critical reaction to The Dark Knight. Hyperbole is something that is commonplace on the film blogosphere, it gets people to click through to articles, it inspires conversation good/bad and drives traffic to sites, however, a lot of the time it’s also genuinely felt. You would have got a lot of people claiming The Dark Knight, or Up or Avatar and at the moment both Toy Story 3 and Inception as “one of the greatest films of all time” though with the benefit of perspective and hindsight, these are claims that will level off. Indeed much was made at the time that The Dark Knight was the number 1 film on IMDB, 2 years later it sits at 12 while Nolan’s latest Inception now sits at 3 and Toy Story 3 sits at 8. Its interesting that the fact that these are so high is not as widely reported and indeed that’s likely because of the backlash to stories about IMDB ratings that appeared after The Dark Knight had come out. The same will probably happen for RT reviews eventually, though the fact that this is based on “professional” critics gives it a greater air of respectability. Sometimes LOVING a film though is akin to a fad, to wanting to be a part of the popular consensus and if anyone thinks otherwise then FUCK THEM, which however you dress it is simply pathetic. I adored Toy Story 3 and I very much liked Inception but if anyone has something bad to say about them, then hey you know what? I’ll debate but I won’t ever, joking aside, shout them down with simple insults.
This brings us to a notable figure who is talked of more and more these days and represents both the best and worst of offering a dissenting opinion. Armond White is a very well respected critic who writes for the New York Press and was a two-time chairman of the New York Critics Circle but his reviews have made him a figure of hate recently. His general opinion on films seems diametrically opposed to the general consensus and this has raised the ire of many of those who seem to want films to be universally loved/hated, indeed in Mr Sciretta’s article he points out Armond White “gets off on being a contrarian, and nothing more”. Now when you look at his general like/didn’t like this could appear to be the case. He doesn’t like Toy Story 3 or Inception, he likes Jonah Hex and Transformers 2, all opinions generally disagreed with. This contrarian attitude is something that annoys many and IN MY OPINION, is the sole reason he was this week a guest on the SlashfilmCast, he had never been mentioned on the cast prior to his new found notorious image and many, notably Chud’s Devin Faraci, if not the cast members themselves saw the cast as a battle, a chance to take White on with his opinions and try and catch him out. This didn’t happen.
Instead, the team on the cast gave White time to speak, to offer up his own thoughts on things and while they were maybe a tad too respectful of some of his more ridiculous sentiments, it was the first time I have seen White be given time to speak on a platform other than those generally offered to him and you know what? In his own skewed, entirely academia based viewpoint a lot of what he said made sense, not all but a lot. White is a fascinating guy to listen too as he fully seems to believe in what he is saying, instead of sounding like he “gets off” on being a contrarian, he instead sounded annoyed with having to justify his opinions after it seemed like he felt like he had already. This is a guy who doesn’t look at film as entertainment, he instead looks at every single one as a potential piece of art and that’s a viewpoint you don’t see often. I fully believe that what he says is what he believes and it contrasts so radically with the general consensus not because he wants to, but because he views films in a different way, some may say the wrong way, but different nonetheless.
That is something I find admirable. Don’t we all want to come at a film from a different point of view as anyone else? Why don’t we want to have an opinion that’s unique? As long as we can justify it to ourselves, do we really need the validation of others to make our opinions feel like our opinions? Of course, this is somewhat hypocritical coming from me as I mainly write reviews for this site but then I write reviews because I like reading reviews, I like knowing other people’s opinions. Hey you don’t like mine? That’s cool but let’s discuss it, don’t harsh my mellow bro. Universal acceptance of a film is something that should be aimed for but its not something that will ever happen. People are individuals, they come at things from different points of views and as such will take different things from films, as they will from any interaction they have in life. There are few universal truths and loving Toy Story 3/The Dark Knight/whatever will never be one of them and you know what? I prefer it that way.
