A.O. Scott NYT Film Critic Quiting

joerobert_pete06

Joined: Sep 30, 2006

Posts: 5,232

User Profile

Private Message

Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

6:09a, 3/23/23

AG

Good listen during your morning drive. He says he is quitting because of the rise in franchise movies like Marvel and DC. He believes this is taking the fun out of critiquing movies and influencing his readers from 'stepping out of the box' to see something new. He also spoke towards how online streaming and companies like Netflix developing algorithms that recommend movies to their users.

They discuss whether or not these are particularly bad for the industry or the critics themselves, but interesting to see how this impacts this well known critic.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6z1VwNgYGn0JOD8fazeIaz?si=VKJjGvO8Sw21unOSxv4Tog

1

Cinco Ranch Aggie

Joined: Jun 27, 2001

Posts: 32,231

User Profile

Private Message

Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

8:02a, 3/23/23

AG

He can do what he wants with his career.

His attitude toward franchises like the MCU is largely what sours me on all movie critics. What in the hell is wrong with movies that many find to be entertaining? Isn't that the first point of even making movies, to entertain audiences? I can enjoy the "thinking outside the box" movies or the hoity-toity movies that critics love to call the "best" but that general audiences don't give a **** about, but mostly I go to movies to be entertained. If that entails huge purple dudes snapping their fingers to wipe out half of all existence while fighting against super heroes, or muscle-bound Vietnam vets waging jihad on Russians, or wise-cracking cops fighting terrorists in a Los Angeles high rise, or a fantasy saga set in a galaxy far, far away, well so be it.

18

cbr

Joined: Dec 18, 2009

Posts: 22,204

User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

8:08a, 3/23/23

AG

I pretty well get it. The marvel movies I've seen are pretty pathetic. Fit for a very low in, low creativity audience. How do you critique **** like that?

'This time the villain is blue instead of green like the last movie'?

When the audience has degraded to where the average education is 7th grade and hasn't ever read anything, it does get hard to do.

That said, there are still a few good movies coming out and quite a few really good streaming series. Maybe that form of entertainment is just edging out movies in general.

10

javajaws

Joined: Dec 2, 2010

Posts: 17,283

User Profile

Private Message

Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

8:19a, 3/23/23

AG

How old is that guy? Seems like a case of old man yelling at the cloud. Maybe he needs to read the book Who Moved My Cheese?

2

BJM1781

Joined: Jul 3, 2008

Posts: 3,050

User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

8:22a, 3/23/23

AG

Have to agree about television. I watch far more interesting series than movies these days.

6

Txmoe

Joined: Dec 31, 2014

Posts: 2,229

User Profile

Private Message

Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

In reply to BJM1781 • 8:58a, 3/23/23

AG

BJM1781 said:
Have to agree about television. I watch far more interesting series than movies these days.

Absolutely agree! The only genres of movies that get made anymore are big budget/action and horror because they sell well overseas, and they're not dialogue-intensive. I miss the thrillers, legal dramas and rom-coms that they don't make anymore.

6

rhutton125

Joined: Apr 11, 2007

Posts: 11,341

User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

9:19a, 3/23/23

AG

Is that true, though? There are still legal dramas. There are still rom-coms. They may not be the top grossing films of the year anymore but they still exist.

Are there substantially fewer legal dramas and romcoms than there were in the past, or are we just not going to see them / not seeing the marketing for them as much? Perhaps critics are annoyed (and rightfully so) because nobody reads their Just Mercy reviews, only their Endgame reviews.

I'm sure there are fewer than there were in the 90s, but I'm not convinced (yet!) that more blockbusters means the death of all variety. But the death of who cares about anything else, definitely.

1

Quad Dog

Joined: May 27, 2004

Posts: 6,373

User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

9:43a, 3/23/23

AG

I'd think that the amount of streaming services out there would make his job more interesting. As a watcher it can be overwhelming to keep track of which movies are good and on which services they live. He could provide that to his readers. It's fine to not like spectacle movies, but nothing is stopping him from writing features about hidden gems hidden on Apple TV or whatever.

2

Txmoe

Joined: Dec 31, 2014

Posts: 2,229

User Profile

Private Message

Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

In reply to rhutton125 • 1:02p, 3/23/23

AG

rhutton125 said:
Is that true, though? There are still legal dramas. There are still rom-coms. They may not be the top grossing films of the year anymore but they still exist.

Are there substantially fewer legal dramas and romcoms than there were in the past, or are we just not going to see them / not seeing the marketing for them as much? Perhaps critics are annoyed (and rightfully so) because nobody reads their Just Mercy reviews, only their Endgame reviews.

I'm sure there are fewer than there were in the 90s, but I'm not convinced (yet!) that more blockbusters means the death of all variety. But the death of who cares about anything else, definitely.

Fair questions and I honestly don't know the answer. So I spent 5 minutes of my lunch break looking it up. The below link shows a breakdown by genre from '95-'23. Rom-coms were pretty steady until the last few years. You're probably right that the major releases just suck up all the oxygen when it comes to marketing. The breakdown by genre is interesting but very muddled. Even by looking at the films listed, it's hard to distinguish between action and adventure.

https://www.the-numbers.com/market/genres

1

rhutton125

Joined: Apr 11, 2007

Posts: 11,341

User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

2:30p, 3/23/23

AG

Nice work!

Capybara

Joined: Jan 13, 2018

Posts: 444

User Profile Ignore User Stop Ignoring

How long do you want to ignore this user?

24 hours One week Permanently Cancel

8:53p, 3/23/23

Iirc he's pivoting back to reviewing books. I think it's a good move for him personally even though there are almost certainly fewer avid readers per capita than ever before (obviously in societies with high literacy rates then and now). I think there are still plenty of great films released each year, but you can't appreciate certain ones at home. I'm hardly the first to say it, but smart phones are the culprit for the flattening of emotion and general vigor in its many forms across all art forms and conversation. I think it's too easy to just say social media alone since I've found that restricting myself to looking at the various platforms on their desktop sites has brought back my desired attention span.

2