{"id":207,"date":"2007-02-01T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-02T03:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/01\/the-films-that-need-critics\/"},"modified":"2007-10-23T14:15:10","modified_gmt":"2007-10-23T19:15:10","slug":"the-films-that-need-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/the-films-that-need-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Films that Need Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned this several months ago, following…I think , but here is another reminder from the Guardian<\/a>. The films that get the most coverage by critics are the big Hollywood blockbusters, which would get coverage ANYWAY because of the studio publicity machines. I mean, nobody really needs critics to tell them that Spider-Man 3<\/i> is coming out this summer, right? And is a review really going to influence your decision to see it, whether the review is positive or negative? For some fence-sitters, yeah, maybe, but most everyone already knows whether or not they’re the sort of person that’s going to like the third installment of a superhero franchise. Critics would be put to better use highlighting smaller films that might otherwise be missed in the mainstream rush. Not that I’m saying this would make an overnight difference in the audience split between mainstream and indie\/foreign film, but even increasing awareness for alternative films would be a help. Plus, wouldn’t it make the critics a lot happier to get to lead with films they actually like and want to see do well than yet another big Hollywood blockbuster? (I’m not against Hollywood blockbusters, but I do get bored with their ubiquity.)<\/p>\n

One of the commenters on the Guardian piece does bring up an interesting point, though, that critics get SO excited about the little films sometimes (because they’re different or innovative in a way that Hollywood usually isn’t) that they overhype them too much and thus audiences who do seek out these films are disappointed. I’ve been there, too. It’s a balancing act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned this several months ago, following…I think , but here is another reminder from the Guardian. The films that get the most coverage by critics are the big Hollywood blockbusters, which would get coverage ANYWAY because of the studio publicity machines. I mean, nobody really needs critics to tell them that Spider-Man 3 is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[29],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/the-role-of-criticism\/","url_meta":{"origin":207,"position":0},"title":"The role of criticism","author":"Jandy","date":"August 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"So far this year, eleven films have opened in theatres without screen for critics first. That's up from just two films by this time last year. These are films which the studios decided would do better without the critics lambasting them on opening weekend. The studios were right about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":848,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/times-richard-corliss-on-critics-awards\/","url_meta":{"origin":207,"position":1},"title":"Time’s Richard Corliss on Critic’s Awards","author":"Jandy","date":"December 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The major film critic awards have been trickling out over the past few weeks, most of them honoring the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and other semi-indie, art-house end of the year releases, prompting Time's Richard Corliss to wonder \"Do Film Critics Know Anything?\". Basically, he likes all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34471,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/american-movie-critics-carl-sandburg\/","url_meta":{"origin":207,"position":2},"title":"American Movie Critics: Carl Sandburg","author":"Jandy","date":"August 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ryan McNeil of The Matinee and I are reading through the American Movie Critics anthology and discussing each chapter as we go, crossposting on each of our blogs. Carl Sandburg is best known as a poet, of course, and his particular evocation of Chicago and social realism. He also spent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Movie Critics"","block_context":{"text":"American Movie Critics","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/american-movie-critics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Carl-Sandburg-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35060,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/american-movie-critics-william-troy\/","url_meta":{"origin":207,"position":3},"title":"American Movie Critics: William Troy","author":"Jandy","date":"March 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"[Ryan McNeil of The Matinee and I are reading through the American Movie Critics anthology and discussing each chapter as we go, crossposting on each of our blogs.] Our own era is dominated by special effects blockbusters, and a lot of our ongoing cultural love of oversize entertainment stems from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Movie Critics"","block_context":{"text":"American Movie Critics","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/american-movie-critics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/amc-kong-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34398,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/how-to-find-your-film-critic\/","url_meta":{"origin":207,"position":4},"title":"How to Find Your Film Critic","author":"Jandy","date":"July 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The death of film criticism is proclaimed every year or so these days, as moviegoers continually declare film critics irrelevant, and box office receipts seem to be totally unrelated to critical consensus. Whenever the topic comes up, one point generally made in response is that the best way to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/fc-keaton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34172,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/american-movie-critics-the-introduction-phillip-lopate\/","url_meta":{"origin":207,"position":5},"title":"American Movie Critics: The Introduction (Phillip Lopate)","author":"Jandy","date":"June 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading David Bordwell's series of posts on criticism in the 1940s made me want to dive back into reading criticism, so I've pulled my copy of American Movie Critics back out (I'd previously made it into the middle of the Ferguson section) and started over, because I don't remember any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Movie Critics"","block_context":{"text":"American Movie Critics","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/american-movie-critics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/American-Movie-Critics-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}