The Critic Is Dead. All Hail The Critic.
The criticism world is on fire.
Critics are being fired left and right, the public feels distrust towards “intellectuals” who shit on popular films, and the criticism world is disproportionately made up of old, white men clinging to the same five films I had to watch in my screenwriting 101 class. Especially with the advent of Twitter and Facebook, everyone feels empowered to be a critic. Anyone can type a short review of a movie they saw and gain credibility on the World Wide Web. It’s a double-edged sword, people can debate their thoughts and opinions on new films/plays/television shows, but anyone can do it. A child can wander into Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, pick up an iPhone, and string together their thoughts into two hundred and eighty characters. It’s the opinion of a living, breathing human, so it matters.
So, to make up for the loss of their audience, critics have tried other methods to lure in their readers in and take their thoughts seriously. Sometimes, this is done poorly (see Ben Brantley’s review of King Kong) or brilliantly (see Alice Saville’s review of Bitter Wheat). But this is a fine and difficult line to tread. How do critics apply analytical thought while giving the audience “what they want”? In this click-bait age of media, how to we satiate a reader’s attention when anyone can post their opinions on Twitter?
In other words, is the critic relevant today?
I say yes. Today, we are living in what is coined “the golden age of television”. There is now more content available due to the accessibility of media. BroadwayHD provides high quality recordings of professional shows. Disney+ contains every piece of media owned by Mickey Mouse. CBS All Access…. Well, I know it has a show where Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu, and Kirby Howell-Biptiste play murderous women. There is too much television and it’s overwhelming. Criticism is now more important than ever so we can navigate this new era of media.
Criticism is that is provides an objective point of view for consumerist media. It’s very easy to see a movie and “like” it because it is a familiar franchise, or stars a favorite actor. Criticism challenges the audience to look past the flashy stunt casting and special effects, and examine the content of the piece itself. Does the story have a clear structure? Do the director, writer, and other members of the creative team create a cohesive aesthetic? Who is this piece of media made for? Did it achieve its goals by reaching its audience? These are basic questions that help us not determine whether something is “good” or “bad”, but whether it is worth your time. Is Tall Girl really worth watching on Netflix? Should you subject yourself to the torture porn of The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu? Criticism gets rid of the fluff and illuminates shows that are making a cultural impact.
This is a situation where there is a Catch-22. Criticism is important because it helps us determine what media is resonating with the general public, but most critics are white men. So, the media purveying our interest is going to be hand-selected by (see above) white men. In the film/TV world, I find that there are a lot of female and non-binary critics, but they are still outnumbered.
Back to my initial question, is the critic relevant today? With the current circumstances of the criticism world being dominated by white men, then no. Criticism is not relevant because it does not reflect the world we live in. I want to hear opinions from women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community. I don’t want to live in an echo chamber.
So, what does this all boil down to?
We need criticism because we live in a world that is oversaturated with media. But, we don’t have enough diverse voices in the criticism world. Thus, the media that’s “critically acclaimed” is chosen through a narrative that is male and white. And when those narratives drive the media consumed by the population, the future of film, television, and theatre looks real ugly.