Welcome
The disparity between critical consensus and box office gross indicates that moviegoers don’t read, heed, or need film criticism. The few who do want a fun read, a brief barometer of whether they will enjoy the movie, or a catchy quotable to fling as one’s own at the water cooler, and certainly not to commit serious thought to the artistic significance of a picture.
The poor quality of film criticism since John Ivan Simon left the field also discourages anyone seeking serious thought about film art from reading reviews. Film is a popular medium, and populist publishers employ the few reviewers who approach the qualifications of a serious critic and pressure them to waste time writing about the latest Hollywood hit or, worse, to endorse it. Some critics, finding fewer than five good films among the hundreds of “critically acclaimed” pictures released each year, are personally desperate - or goaded by readers and editors complaining of “negativity” - to pass positive judgment on undeserving flicks. (Perhaps this is what lead Jonathan Romney to champion the vacuous pornography of 9 Songs as “[making] the sex stand in for all the other things that routinely convey character.”)
All moviegoers are “critics.” The Internet has made them all published critics. Such a flood of unthinking and uninformed opinion saturates our lives that chaste criticism is difficult. I also anticipate difficulty with foreign films because I am monolingual and monocultural. Worse, I’m American. I, an uneducated, uncultured, inexperienced, unabashed movie lover, cannot fill the void in competent film criticism. But I’ll do my best to research, consider thoughtfully, and ignore the bandwagon concerning the movies I review. I may even write well on occasion.
Let the mental masturbation begin!
