“Trash has given us an appetite for art.” – Pauline Kael
With respect to the venerable Miss Kael, when it comes to film it’s getting harder to trust some critics to know the difference. We’d like to present an alternative to that.
The waning public trust of film criticism
Has this happened to you? You go to a film because of the ecstatic reviews bestowed by critics usually trusted to keep their heads. Two hours (or however long) later, you walk out of the theatre feeling as if you’ve wasted your time.
Why is there a “masterpiece” in theatres every year or so now? Why does each fall season bring another “triumph” of cinema? Not all films are bad, and not all films are great. Very few are good. Most are mediocre, and the mainstream press judges most capably. But more and more some films are given special dispensation because of a distinct set of factors, and that leniency threatens the credibility of film criticism as a worthwhile and respected effort.
Pedigree is not a mandate for rave reviews.
We feel there is a growing tendency to overvalue many films according to pedigree, or (worse) by the force of their marketing. If a film insists upon its greatness, many critics often fall in lockstep to validate that claim. We feel this should not be so, and have started this blog to offer a counterpoint to the clamor of those bandwagons.
Perhaps the most obvious recent example of this dubious trend is P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, a film that all but includes subtitles reminding the audience they’re observing brilliance. Critics tripped on themselves to praise it, with precious few dissenting voices, leaving a bewildered public to spend their money in good faith. There Will Be Blood is not a bad film, but it is not a good one either, and its habit of insisting upon itself is no more valid or self-actualizing than The Office’s Michael Scott “declaring” bankruptcy at the top of his lungs. For what it’s worth, we believe in Anderson as a filmmaker – enough to call bullshit when he releases such a flawed work.
We’re going to be honest above all else here, and fair. No one is going to Sundance, no one is getting a press kit full of swag. We live in small cities in the South and work other jobs.
The advent of big budget B-movies
Bruce Campbell, who is certainly an expert on such matters, said there are no more true B-movies because the best B-movie ideas now get the A-movie budgets. We think he has a point, but we’re movie fans and we appreciate this shift in spending. Hell, we welcome it.
An affection, on the part of their makers, for some forms of genre have elevated many films otherwise dismissed as genre trash to something that, if not art themselves, are at least very good genre fiction (analogous to a very good cheeseburger, which is sometimes more enticing than the finest steak.) These are the crime, comic book, science fiction, and horror movies currently bombarding theatres in unprecedented numbers. They’re a part of the film landscape, and they’re worth taking seriously. We’re going to review them and we’re going to review them seriously and without condescension.
Stick with us.
Hit ALT-Z on your keyboard now. This blog will regularly premiere new content, and we’ll be offering other features and attractions as they occur to us, several in the next few weeks. Of course we welcome your comments and feedback. We’re going to scream, and we hope you scream back.
Thanks,
Michael Kabel
Publisher, Screaming Blue Reviews
