I could go on and on about how deficient film criticism has become in modern day. I was not particularly a fan of "Don't Look Up" -- you speak of the optimism of the movie (and make a strong case) but I keep going back to, for me, the movie's funniest joke -- the "five-star general" at the beginning of the movie inexplicably charging the scientists money for the free snacks. In essence, there is no scenario, not even the end of the world, that the craven and soulless among us won't exploit for their own selfish gain. I am generally an optimist about politics, but not in this movie's case.
But as far as the weakness of these modern critics, it's clear they keep watching movies with preconceived notions of what a movie is meant to be, which means they will be rankled when a movie does not fit their narrow rubric. They're not poised for something new, a fresh idea, something that may force them to write introspectively about an element of a movie they don't fully understand. I think "Adam McKay's Star-Filled Netflix Movie Don't Look Up" gave them too many assumptions about what they felt this was supposed to be.
Film criticism is dying, and the response needs to be to expand it into the realm of humanity and philosophy, as you do. Too many critics act as if people still want to only have a discussion where the movie is the text, and people plugged in to the world around us, the suffering and inequities and even the beauty are ideas somehow irrelevant to whether or not something is "** 1/2" or "***".
It's a tremendous rule of thirds gag, definitely, and I'd say your reading gels perfectly with what I've written here, given that the selfishness of these people (often in positions of power, of course) is precisely what necessitates a concentrated effort towards optimism and bountiful, intimate creation.
Per the state of criticism, I find it extra baffling that modern critics don't engage with the elements they don't understand with their full chest, as though the viewer isn't the one who creates those understandings. All that stuff I wrote about Frame One here? I haven't the slightest clue if McKay and company intended that, but I noticed it, that's how I understood it, and I think it's hard to deny that it works. When I say things like this, it's to highlight the dimensions we're able to create with a viewing experience; to access a film's full communicative potential in whatever context I or anyone else finds it in.
Hilariously, I think the missing piece of the puzzle here is that modern critics are not insisting upon themselves. Rather than creating new angles to this culture, they're validating/farming the ones that already exist, ostensibly because they actually aren't cinematically literate or creative enough to find new angles, nor brave enough against the threat of alienation to stand upon and assert them. At that point, they're just really loud audience members/premium fanboys/fangirls. I find it nauseating.
Sidebar: I finally got around to watching National Anthem and it pulverized my mortal essence, so thank you for that.
I could go on and on about how deficient film criticism has become in modern day. I was not particularly a fan of "Don't Look Up" -- you speak of the optimism of the movie (and make a strong case) but I keep going back to, for me, the movie's funniest joke -- the "five-star general" at the beginning of the movie inexplicably charging the scientists money for the free snacks. In essence, there is no scenario, not even the end of the world, that the craven and soulless among us won't exploit for their own selfish gain. I am generally an optimist about politics, but not in this movie's case.
But as far as the weakness of these modern critics, it's clear they keep watching movies with preconceived notions of what a movie is meant to be, which means they will be rankled when a movie does not fit their narrow rubric. They're not poised for something new, a fresh idea, something that may force them to write introspectively about an element of a movie they don't fully understand. I think "Adam McKay's Star-Filled Netflix Movie Don't Look Up" gave them too many assumptions about what they felt this was supposed to be.
Film criticism is dying, and the response needs to be to expand it into the realm of humanity and philosophy, as you do. Too many critics act as if people still want to only have a discussion where the movie is the text, and people plugged in to the world around us, the suffering and inequities and even the beauty are ideas somehow irrelevant to whether or not something is "** 1/2" or "***".
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
It's a tremendous rule of thirds gag, definitely, and I'd say your reading gels perfectly with what I've written here, given that the selfishness of these people (often in positions of power, of course) is precisely what necessitates a concentrated effort towards optimism and bountiful, intimate creation.
Per the state of criticism, I find it extra baffling that modern critics don't engage with the elements they don't understand with their full chest, as though the viewer isn't the one who creates those understandings. All that stuff I wrote about Frame One here? I haven't the slightest clue if McKay and company intended that, but I noticed it, that's how I understood it, and I think it's hard to deny that it works. When I say things like this, it's to highlight the dimensions we're able to create with a viewing experience; to access a film's full communicative potential in whatever context I or anyone else finds it in.
Hilariously, I think the missing piece of the puzzle here is that modern critics are not insisting upon themselves. Rather than creating new angles to this culture, they're validating/farming the ones that already exist, ostensibly because they actually aren't cinematically literate or creative enough to find new angles, nor brave enough against the threat of alienation to stand upon and assert them. At that point, they're just really loud audience members/premium fanboys/fangirls. I find it nauseating.
Sidebar: I finally got around to watching National Anthem and it pulverized my mortal essence, so thank you for that.
loved reading this one ♥️
It seems to be a clear satire of 21st century America, just as "Dr. Strangelove" was such a satire of America during the Cold War era.