Where I'm at With the World of Film - Discourse and Criticism
So there is no glossing over how much of a mess the world feels right now, there is absolute chaos and vitriol everywhere you seem to look, maybe because I am quite young and just really getting to see the world as it is, but I feel quite burnt out and just exhausted by everything that is happening. What is even more frustrating is that I find myself struggling with my own subculture that I use as escapism, I am a big film and TV fan but it is almost unbearable to go onto social media and look at other people in this subculture as they bicker and viscously fight over often nothing. I was originally going to release a proper review this week but I couldn't get over this hump of burn out and lack of enthusiasm, so I thought I'd write a little piece to go through my own personal thoughts on the state of film criticism, my own perception on critics and the subcultures in film discourse that cause me so much anger and anxiety around something I love. As always this is completely my own opinion and perspective, I will try and make this more structured and less rant-like but I can't promise that it won't get a bit messy and I want it to be a platform to discuss and reflect.
I've been going on this blog for about a year and a half now, it hasn't exactly gone viral but I have a steady amount of support and fans keeping me motivated and keeping me writing. I have this blog as a creative outlet, I love talking about things I love, I very rarely write negative reviews unless they are something interesting and something that I can really tuck in to. I like exploring inventive ideas and the themes and ideas that come through from different pieces of art, I try my complete best to be as honest and open about my feelings behind each review, it isn't a matter of evaluating objectively what works and what doesn't, it's all about what I got out of it and broadcasting some love and ideas around different content. I don't often give away my thoughts straight away, I fundamentally disagree with most film 'ratings' because none of my thoughts as a critic are simply easy enough to be dismissed by a star rating. Say my review of 'Joker' which is probably my most negative review on here, if I had opened that with a 2/5 rating, people wouldn't listen to me at all and my perspective behind the 2 stars should be more important than the stars themselves. There is far too much nuance in film critique than a rating, I think it has basically ruined a lot of discourse and there is so much impatience bubbling around that no one seems to hear people out.
Subjectivity is so damn important and people often overlook and forget how vital it is to bear in mind people's perspective are their own perspectives and deserve a right to exist. I try and get across my thought process as much as possible with my writing, I try and make it clear to how I reached my conclusions If I liked something I always feel I need to explain how and why I liked that thing. Take the surprisingly divisive 'Jojo Rabbit' last year which was one of my favourite films of the year, I tried to communicate that it was a genre that I really appreciated and I really enjoyed the ability to tell a human and relatable story with a quite light-hearted and comedic tone that is used to grow character's and themes excellently. A lot of people threw the film to the side for various reasons, first of all, there's the very sticky perspective on the holocaust which I understand and am nowhere near educated enough to fully comment on it. As far as I see it, I think the film does an effective job at showing just how horrific it was, even if it is played for comedy, it still stems from a place of real-life stakes. There is the admittedly fair dislike of the number of tonal shifts and comedy that might just not work for people if you aren't invested in something's comedy it is tough to be invested in anything else without getting angry at the comedy.
Now if I was to just simply wear the statement 'I Loved Jojo Rabbit' and people who fell into those two categories only heard that part, they would probably dismiss and not be able to even understand how I got to that perspective. It's about personality and communication, you can read my review here, but I really tried to get across what brought me to love this film, not what is objectively excellent but what personally attracted me to the film's construction. There's a myth in modern culture that a film critic's job is to be the voice of reason, this is absolute nonsense, no critic's word is final and no critic should be what you base your own perspective on. I have a lot of love for Mark Kermode, but I don't always agree, that doesn't make him wrong, it just means that I should listen and try to discern exactly how Kermode got to that perspective and understand it against mine. I think people put critic's on a pedestal, I don't really like calling myself a critic I just like talking about and discussing a film, the word 'critic' has an heir of responsibility to it and people treat a professional's opinion as true. But there's no such thing as complete and utter objectivity in this medium, it's about evoking emotion and entertainment, there is no objectively good film and objectively bad film, it's all about opinion and perspective.
Now I'm saying all this through an extremely utopian voice. I struggle to do this a lot, it's an extremely difficult thing to do; to listen to someone who has the complete opposite opinion truly explain their perspective and respect it is so difficult. I just think it is something I try and remind myself to do, I write as openly and honestly as possible in hopes that people would do the same in a response to my opinion. But it isn't that simple, it isn't really possible for complete subjectivity to exist in the same way complete objectivity can't exist, there are social barriers and cultural factors that can really restrict and cause personal perspectives to be skewed and butt heads. Obviously nurture has such much to do with perspective and I think your environment has a lot to do with how you perceive certain things, it's important to be aware of your own biases and keep in mind other people's. A lot of my opinions come from where I'm at, I could be exhausted with one genre and discover something that brings it alive again or I could just be happy to see something different and exciting for once. Revisiting classics I often find myself having to make clear how much connection I have to them as a way of showcasing how my perspective differs from others.
Currently, I am in a kind of exhausted pattern in my writing, I've been really enjoying the ounces of positivity that have come from shows like Fleabag or Russian Doll, due to a real burn out of such negativity in modern TV and Film. I've never been a fan of pretension and just works that emulate quality by just appearing dark and drab, I can't stand the work of Ken Loach or Mike Leigh because of how brutal and unnecessary the topics they cover are, so much so that even when I often agree with the film's perspective I become desensitized. Something about film culture that always troubled me was this ingrained perspective that 'gritty, violent and grim films are inherently better than more vulnerable, light-hearted and tonally positive films'. It comes from this weird macho perspective, people so often don't want to showcase vulnerability and because the film world is so male-dominated (something that is slowly but surely changing) vulnerability was seen as a weakness in filmmaking and criticism. Obviously, that isn't to say the former are inherently bad or the latter are inherently good, I just mean that you can't define them in comparison with each other. Don't sneer because someone dislikes 'The Godfather' because they find it overwhelmingly macho and tonally not appealing and don't sneer at someone because they loved 'Love Actually' just because you think it is of a lesser 'breed' of cinema.
It came from that awful discourse around Scorsese's 'Not cinema' comment last year that I really began to be desensitized around modern film discourse. Just because a film is independent, surrealist, dark, old or classic doesn't make it inherently good and just because a film is corporate, mass-appeal, action-orientated and modern doesn't make it inherently bad. You can't dismiss what people love because it alienates discourse, there is this raw arrogance to film fans that I find so unappealing. Just because you have 'seen more films' or are aware of different filmmakers does not make your opinion more valuable, I always think it's important to let people enjoy what they enjoy or else we aren't going to get anywhere. You shouldn't have to enjoy a Marvel film with an ironic awareness that it is a corporate product, you should just be able to enjoy this film and value the experience you had with it. There's so much undermining and hipster mindsets surrounding these perspectives, everyone seems to be constantly one-upping and trying to prove their love for cinema. You can't be the best film-fan and you shouldn't model your perspective as greater than other's just because you have more experience with films.
I think I started writing this out of a sort of fear of what studying film at degree level is going to be like. I've a had a lot of time to reflect and grow since the last time I academically studied film and I'm a bit nervous to get back into that culture when the only real connections I've had to it is social media. I got into film because I loved film, but the more I got into film I realised how divisive and often toxic this community is, but I also completely understand why. Your own perspective and opinion is a part of your life, you can't help but want to defend your perspective because it is so special to you and to hear someone demean your perspective is so disheartening. There's no facts or objectivity in film. I completely think that it comes down to the power of the individual audience. A shot can mean a billion different things to a billion different people, don't say that something is inherently bad on a technical level because that is utterly pointless. You can see it everywhere, people praising the cinematography or writing of a film and so many people trying to one-up that opinion based on these facts that better technical elements exist, it doesn't benefit anyone and I think it limits discourse and restricts people getting into film.
This was something I needed to write, I feel a bit tired and exhausted at the moment purely due to how much vitriol has come up in modern film discourse. I love film almost exclusively because it always means something different, I love watching a film multiple times and getting something else out of it. I love watching a superhero film and seeing my childhood heroes come to life. I love watching a David Lynch film and letting the dark surrealism tear me apart. I love watching a Taika Waititi film and switching between tears of laughter and tears of tragedy. I just really love how much film offers, I don't think anything it offers is inherent 'more valuable or less valuable' I just am thankful that I get to share that experience. Whether it be education, escapism, reaffirmation or even just the adrenaline, I think we need to value the effect of a film. I'm in the camp that filmmaker's intention doesn't have to match audience response, that there isn't ever a correct response to a film because I think it is important to value your own experience. Don't demean the fact you had fun with a Marvel film, don't demean yourself because you didn't understand a Truffaut film and don't ever demean someone else for their own experiences. Have fun, revel in the beauty of film and respect each other, of course, this is easier said than done but I think it's truly refreshing to let go of that angst and cynniscm and embrace the importance of this medium.
Thanks for reading. I will go back to posting more actual reviews soon. I really appreciate if you have taken the time to read this as it means a lot to me.