My dislike of film criticism is well established. The whole mindset that begins by classification…two and a half stars out of four…is so contrived and alien to me, that I’m not even sure where the origin of such an approach lies. True, a rating system says more about the critic than the art, but what does it say about the art? It says that art exists merely as an excuse to talk publicly about the role of the art critic. And what role does the art critic supposedly serve in this view? The art critic serves as a bastion of artistic fitness to defend the culture against mediocre art. How or under what circumstances one achieves this lofty place is a bit vague. “I’ve seen a lot of films” is hardly persuading, for I cannot judge the quality of your viewing, your keenness, your attention to detail, your hidden biases, the sources or meta narratives you will draw upon for your analysis, or whether you even have anything interesting to say other than a recounting of your subjective experience. There’s a whole terrible class of this sort of critic, but Rex Reed is certainly the archetype, who often in his quest to shred, pan, and denounce, couldn’t even be bothered with a faithful summary of the events in the movies he was supposed to review (what a life it must be to be so distracted as to not pay attention to THE distraction on the screen.)

My favorite trope is the warning against any film portraying a religious figure or having religious-based core message to “avoid excessive preachiness.” How pray tell does one preach without preachiness? Well, it’s a matter of degree. But why? If I make a horror movie, must you warn me to “avoid excessive scariness?” A romance must “avoid excessive romance”? The same critics complain that film has devolved into boring repetitiveness, a lack of originality and novelty as studios chase formulas of past success. In truth, though, the critic doesn’t want to be challenged or pushed. They are perfectly fine with a film that hits all the preconceived notions, but throws in one or two idiosyncrasies enough to call it very good or great. But if we truly are thrill seekers, we should embrace a film that is willing to push us out of our comfort zones. Did you find the film too preachy for your tastes? Good! Your tastes are what this is all about. Rejection doesn’t make you smarter or better, it may even be a sign you’re not as open-minded as you like to believe. The devout should seek out films with stark, bleak messages of hopeless. The cynic should seek out films with fantastic, storybook endings. Are you feeling pushed? Good. Art isn’t supposed to work for you. Art is supposed to work on you.