On Critics and Blogging

Via JuliaM; critics, it seems, don’t much like this anonymous blogging malarky when it treads on their turf. It could put them out of business…

But the practice, used in newspaper and online marketing of the picture, has been condemned by professional critics.

Jason Solomons, chairman of the film section of The Critics’ Circle, said: “These online postings are unreliable. We don’t know who the writers are. Anybody can make up an internet name – it could be the producer himself or one of the actors.”

Here we go again… They don’t like not knowing who we are. This seems to be an oft repeated refrain, a shrill whine that is increasing in intensity as the guardians of the old style media find the keys to the kingdom wrest from their grubby little grasp. We don’t need them and they don’t like it.

It’s a very dangerous area because the anonymity gives them complete freedom to express themselves without being accountable for what they have written. It’s actually cowardly and I don’t think it’s helpful to use them.

Oh, my, Dangerous? Oh, do get a grip. Complete freedom to express our opinions eh? How awful. When you are reviewing a film, play or book, you don’t need to be accountable for your thoughts. You like it or you don’t and you say why. Accountability in such a context is nonsense. But, then, so are the outpourings of the parasites who lurk in the underbelly of the arts; the professional critics who can kill off a production with a scathing review. I take their views with the proverbial pinch of salt. Indeed, I have watched a production because the critics have panned it. The reasoning being that if these vacuous fuckwits don’t like it, then it’s likely to be good entertainment. I am rarely wrong. Critics are a waste of time. No one should take their opinions seriously – because, like this piece here – they are just opinions. I make my own mind up, I do not allow these slimeballs to make it up for me.

All that said, the idea of using real peoples’ opinions makes much more sense for the production companies. After all, real people have put their money down, so are satisfied customers. Much the same as, for example, the customer reviews you might find on Amazon or on motoring sites. Real people who have bought the product and give a real world insight. I wouldn’t buy a motorcycle or car based upon a road test in a magazine as the person concerned has not bought and paid for it and hasn’t lived with it – foibles and all. No, I’ll ask an owner what they think, not some professional critic. The same goes for a film. If I know someone who has seen it, I’ll ask their opinion. I would not – ever – take the opinion of a professional critic like Solomons.

The situation contrasts with Mama Mia, which was released to critical derision earlier this year but flourished after reviews by the public.

That’s because the public are not scurrying about up their own arses.

Mr Solomons, who writes for a number of national newspapers and was among those who praised The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, said: “This is a very important film and it’s a shame to see it cheapened in this way, especially when it had decent reviews.”

Oh, dear, how sad, never mind. Get over yourself.

He said that some of his colleagues believed the use of blogging reviews threatened their future.

Jolly good, bring it on.

There is a fear that it could spell the end of the critic. I’m hoping that it will highlight the inconsistencies of the internet and reinforce the point of us. People will realise they can’t be guided by ‘Pete63’ because they don’t know who it is.

I don’t need to know who he is. I can read the review and form my own conclusions. I do not need a critic to help me do this. I’m a big boy now. I am perfectly capable of sorting the wheat from the chaff and the latter is more likely to come from the pens of Solomons and his colleagues than Peter63, quite frankly. Unless Solomons paid to see the film, I am not remotely interested in what he has to say about it.

Mr Solomons stressed the importance of the relationship between the critic and the public and said: “When a film-goer reads a critic whose views chime with theirs, they know that if the critic likes a film then they go along and enjoy it. That wouldn’t happen with a blogger they don’t know.”

Bollocks. There is no “relationship” with critics. They are parasites, nothing more. Their “opinions” are paid for, so are worthless. Yes, I would place more value on the opinions of a blogger I did not know.