We’ve let the movies pile up over the last few weeks, which means it’s time for a CINEMAHOLICS REVIEW-ATHON! We start off with the big Disney wide release, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, then dive into Zombieland: Double Tap and catch up on El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. From there, we get into some mini reviews that range from stellar indies to major new shows hitting streaming. This is a packed episode, so be sure to check out the show notes below to see everything we covered.
This week’s theme music is “Mistress of Evil,” which was composed by Geoff Zanelli and can be found on the original soundtrack for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Question of the Week: What makes someone a film critic?
Show Notes:
- 00:00:00 – Off-Topics: Question of the Week, Jon talks about Abominable
- 00:10:54 – Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
- 00:32:46 – Zombieland: Double Tap
- 00:48:58 – El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
- 01:06:39 – Parasite
- 01:14:50 – The Addams Family
- 01:23:56 – Pain and Glory
- 01:34:17 – Little Monsters
- 01:40:30 – Watchmen Season 1 Pilot
- 01:51:36 – The Laundromat
- 02:02:47 – Living with Yourself
- 02:12:30 – Wounds
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For me, a film critic is anyone who reviews a film professionally. As in, they put forth their review with assumed authority and credibility. Anyone can recommend a film or blog about a movie they like. Someone who makes video essays about film can be a critic, for example, but not all video essayists are necessarily film critics. The review should contain real criticism, too, not just a bare breakdown of obvious information. Example: Chris Stuckmann is a film critic, not just a film enthusiast. Shea Serrano is a film enthusiast, but not a film critic.
To me, a film critic is anyone who reviews film and provides their perspective in an honest, thoughtful way. There’s room for people to be film buffs and movie lovers without the added pressure of asserting their film takes as authoritative. I think a lot of people fight each other over consensus on a film and there’s plenty of animosity between the critics and general audiences in this way. But to me, critics are a form of cultural consciousness filtered and articulated through skillful communication. This is why the best critics are experts in the subject and in film history in general, or are at least striving to be well-informed so as to understand how audiences will interpret a piece of film differently from someone watching their first movie ever.
Film critics express their opinion on a film and whether or not people should go see it. They should lay out what the film is essentially about, why it is or isn’t worth watching, and ideally summate their review with some kind of grading system, though I don’t think that’s always required. If someone talks about a movie without going through all of, if not most of these basic steps, I don’t think they’re engaging in real film criticism.
Wow, awesome as always, thank you, I’m in love with your podcast, looking forward to more releases.