What's Wrong With How We Critique Pop Culture, Rate Films

I was reading an article published in January 2006 by some critic in some magazine, the edition of the best and worst of the year 2005. He rivaled Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg against each other for who was the best (not of this year, but of all time) for pulling in audiences. He went for Jackson based on sales. Then he started talking about Spielberg losing his touch to pull people in, which people have been talking about of him along with every other director who has been almost or just as successful as he is since their success began.

It came down again to hype vs. content. This is my biggest pet peeve and I only have two. The critic seemed to be surprised that Spielberg's "Munich" was as good as it was and then he said to the audience not to be as surprised because "he did make Schindler's List" as if he had forgotten.

But what disturbs me the most is that people refuse to recognize talent that stays these days. Every filmmaker is going to have a few clunkers and Spielberg definitely has a few, but overall his product is good, not only in my opinion but generally he has made some of the greatest films of last century and some of this one, critics and audiences agree.

I don't think it has anything to do with Spielberg's "dwindling" talent that people speak this way, it has to do with the attitude toward art and every artists from classical music to paintings to literature. Everyone who knows me knows that it disturbs me when people don't appreciate things like Shakespearean plays, or Mozart, or Hitchcock, or Raphael (and I don't even like Raphael but I appreciate his art and talent). People have their opinions and such and I love having discussions over what people liked or disliked about certain films but (and now we come to the reason for this article) when people say something is overrated, no matter if it be someone like Brittany Spears, I almost take offense.

It makes my stomach boil, that word, "overrated".

Saying something is overrated is lazy criticism. Whoever says it doesn't have to make the effort to explain his/her opinions in a well thought out way with reverence to the art of filmmaking or any other kind of art. Why do people use that phrase anyway? Because of hype, I think. When some actor is so good, or everyone likes that piece of music, when the Mona Lisa is hanging in a museum and everyone is there just to see it, you walk by and say "Ah, it's overrated, not as good as I thought it was gonna be." What did you expect? For Mona to jump off the wall and kiss you on the cheek? People don't take stock in the curves and the lines, and movement of the camera, and the thought put into the turning of a phrase anymore. Because something is too old, embedded in our society, or overused, it is overrated.

Overusage is a huge problem that attributes to people making a decision about a work of art they haven't even seen yet. I've heard people say about films like "Forrest Gump" or American Beauty" 'I hate those movies! They're probably not as good as everyone says they are!' Isn't that disturbing? People mistake the word overused for overrated and it
irritates me. People can get sick of something before they even see so that when they do, especially if it's something uniquely simple and special, they already have a bad connotation in their heads about it and call it overrated. Hype is a prison.

Look at the song "Ironic" by Alanis Morrisette. Good song, great artist. 898,000 plays on the radio later, bad song. Good artist. And of course the old adage, old age. Spielberg made Jaws, ET, Close Encounters, Schindler's List, The Color Purple, Minority Report, Catch Me, Saving Private . . .and he's still making movies. Good movies. But now he's too old right? I bet his next one won't be good right? See?

I told you so, right? They say these things because they don't want to keep saying something is too good so they seem as if they are just going along with the general public. They get tired of hearing about someone and don't wanna be part of the norm by praising them . . .

But it's not just that people get tired, they get jealous and spiteful. They get cynical. And that's only been in the last 20 years that people have become this way. With the media looking for dirt on everything that moves and some things that don't, and people showing their sh**ty a** lives on television for all to see, we want to see that Hollywood mogul go down. Because we want that house and car. We want that fame. We wanna be on TV. Because all those people are just lucky. They don't deserve to be told "you're doing a good job, keep it up." They deserve to be shot down as quickly as we built them up. Yep, Mozart was just lucky. No talent at all.

Well, I say this - I'm from the school of "Judge it on its merit, not on who it is or what it is." Who the heck cares if was directed by Steven or produced by Tom or if Matthew was in it? Was it a good story? Was the direction good? How was the acting? I mean obviously all of this tuff has to be good and you have to pick the right people for any kind of artwork. Would the work still be overrated if it was EXACTLY the same and someone else directed it and starred in it? Of course not, cause we wouldn't be tired of them. And believe me, I know everyone has their preferences, even me. I totally dislike everything Brittany has done and it is because it is Brittany. But I also say this, No talent will always be no talent to me and vice versa. But I do appreciate her nerve and sticktoitiveness.

All I'm saying is a person should be able to actually think and give an opinion on art. This is why we have at, to express emotion and conscious feeling about the world we live in. When someone throws comments off the cuff about great works of art as if they mean nothing, it dilutes the passion of the filmmaker or the artist or the writer and it makes the work put into it so trivial. It's the cynic in us, all of us, and it has to go. We sit in judgment instead of enjoyment. And when we reflect on something, we try to find the bad things first, just to create more discussion. We don't read the classics anymore so we have nothing to compare greatness to. We focus on the 114 period authenticity mistakes in Forrest Gump the first week after it comes out instead of the spectacular performances in the film. And I've heard people call that overrated too.

This cynical world has turned us into pessimists and TV courtroom judges. We rely on the judgments of others to create an idea about something we have no knowledge of in our minds. Seeing the product isn't important anymore. We gotta move on and go see XXX. We rely the laziness o our cynical nature instead of the born intellect that we all have to make rational decisions based on what we see and hear. This leads us to discuss art based on menial factors rather than its artistic validity.

In conclusion I say, rate it as your own! I don't care if you hate Spielberg . . . but hate him for good reason, not because he's so popular. I acknowledge that part of the reason I dislike Paris Hilton is that she is so popular but it has more to do with the fact she has no talent and is still a superstar while there are people out there who are working hard (talent or no talent) while she lives la vida loca. Form your own opinions on art for goodness sakes, the world has become mindless and thought provoking subjects are now arbitrary to society but we can change that. Try to describe those opinions in a healthy and well said manner. Don't say "overrated" unless you're talking about something you actually rate. I know people rate movies all the time and I actually have said the words overrated a lot but only in jest and only when I see a horrible movie like Batman and Robin get a rating of D in a magazine. There are exceptions people.

But maybe if people provoked intelligent conversation about films that we like and dislike, we might be able to understand why the industry and art in general have become less than art and more like merchandise . . . that no one wants to buy.

And maybe this bitter, malcontented cynical society such as America will rise up and revert back to giving praise to people who deserve it, no matter who they are, and negative criticisms alike based on merit, not on hype.