Everyone's a Critic

With the diversification of media that is currently going on in the world, new ways of making sense of those media are emerging.  Raúl Rodriguez-Ferrándiz’s Culture Industries in a Post-industrial Age: Entertainment, Leisure, Creativity, in which he looks at the way that media and production are no longer separate categories but over lapping entities.  This overlap means that it is harder for scholars and others to theorize and critique works because one work can include many things. This idea is explored the the chapter “Remediating Creativity” from Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska’s work Life After New Media, this text stresses the idea that critiquing creative output is not necessarily anti-creative, but is just another vital step in the creative process, enabling the viewer or consumer to gain a better understanding of what they are viewing, express a concern about what they are viewing, or suggest ways for the type of medium they are consuming to evolve and grow. However, the multitude of media and variation means that the critics who are making these judgments are no longer an obvious cultural elite. Just as production is diversifying, so is the nature of critique.

A place where the diversification of critique is really noticeable is in the film industry. Not only are there traditional professional movie critics who write for magazines and other official publications, but there are also amateurs who express their opinion of cinema through blog posts, tweets and even YouTube videos. Critique of film is important because film is such a massively influential medium that it is seen as a way of judging the state of the world and the thoughts and ideas of the mass culture.  In spite of its constant evolution there is the fear that it relies on static stories. Stories that follow the same traditional narratives and use the same types of characters and filmic devices.

This is surprising in an era when the technology used to create films is rapidly advancing. The nature of film production is changing at such a quick rate, yet the stories that are told are still holding to the old standards and values. For example, James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) was a technological marvel, but the story was not anything new.  For a film to be truly effective content and production should both be improving and not just the technological aspect. New types of critique have been emerging to address these concerns

It is not official movie critics such as Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) or Leah Greenblatt (Entertainment Weekly) who are headlining this important critical movement or trying to effect change in how stories are told or what stories are told on film. People from outside the world of film are developing new ways of looking at and understanding its content.

Ones of the most influential new(er) ways of critiquing movies is the Bechdel Test. Created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in the 1985, the Bechdel Test evaluates the role of women in movies according to three criteria:  

1.Are there two named female characters?

2.Do they talk to each other?

3.Do they talk about something other than a man?

They seem like very simple criteria and yet once a viewer becomes aware of these questions he/she can’t help but notice how many movies fail this test, even films with female leads.

 The Bechdel Test has been highly influential over the years and even inspired others to create their own movie critiquing tests. Another examples is comic writer Kelly Sue DeConnick’s “Sexy Lamp” Test developed in 2012. This test asks can your female character be replaced by a sexy lamp with out having any effect on the plot of the film? If so either replace the actress with a sexy lamp (more cost efficient) or change the script. Further Bechdel inspired movie tests provide the viewers with frameworks to examine the representations of other marginalized groups in film, such as people of colour and the LGBTQ community

The Bechdel test is not a flawless test, and there are critiques of this system of critique particularly the idea that a pass/fail system can accurately judge a movie without examining the individual plot or storyline. The Bechdel Test might not be a perfect judge of the representation of women in movies, but it does allow viewers to create a new awareness of the way the stories they are consuming are hiding traditional standards but also with a way to frame their critique of a film.

The Bechdel Test is not saying that any movies which do not pass that test are bad, anti-women or not worth watching. It makes the viewer think critically about the content and how that content might be affected by the male gaze of the Hollywood Camera. It is not a “be all and end all” way of looking at movies, but rather a way of highlighting problems that exist in the system.

This awareness of how the system works is important for a viewer to understand how the content they are viewing may be biased. It also provides future filmmakers with evidence of a creative problem and a direction for development of new creative content.

This one test has provided film researchers with a way to examine how films are changing, but Allison Bechdel is not the only non-professional commenting on the state of film.  There are thousands of people across many platforms and from many walks of life and viewpoints that critique films and some who, despite their amateur status, are able to generate their own followings and wield some influence (see moviebob’s review of “Pixels”).

This huge number of critics means that the usefulness of a critique is being called into question. People might have issues with a film but content producers will not be able to please everyone, especially if thousands of people have differing opinions.  If everyone is talking over each other it is easier to block out what people are saying than if it is just one voice saying one thing. This multitude of critics also means that producers will probably be able to find someone who agrees with them and only listen to that voice and ignore the others.

  Social issues in film and media will not be solved overnight.  With the multitude of voices, the issue is now if the problems that are being highlighted in critique will be able to reach an audience and cause change. There is a danger that critique will not be able to play its part in the creative process due to the sheer volume of it.

THESIS TWEET “If everyone is a critic what is the value of critique?”

BB, FM, LB, MM, YB

Sources

Kember, Sarah, and Joanna Zylinska. "Remediating Creativity: Performance Intervention and Critique." In Life after New Media, by Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska, 173-200. New York: MIT Press, 2013.

Rodríguez-Ferrándiz, Raúl. "Culture Industries in a Postindustrial Age: Entertainment, Leisure, Creativity, Design." Critical Studies in Media Communication, 2013.

Sarkeesian, Anita. "The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies ." feministfrequency.com. 2009. http://feministfrequency.com/2009/12/07/the-bechdel-test-for-women-in-movies/ (accessed 2015).