Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
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Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
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Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#2I've done this analysis for games. My theory was that the correlation was falling because the ratings of old games were dominated by players playing old games now and then rating them, and they were more likely to play games for which there is already a consensus that they are good (old bad games are mostly just forgotten). Whereas for current games the games being played are more random.
Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#3I don't think critics should necessarily follow general audiences , anymore than you would want a food critic to rate mcdonalds.
Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#4I don't think critics should necessarily follow general audiences , anymore than you would want a food critic to rate mcdonalds.
On the other side of the coin, you can have situations like in 1989 when Jethro Tull beat Metallica for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance at the Grammy's.
Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#5I don't think critics should necessarily follow general audiences , anymore than you would want a food critic to rate mcdonalds.
But then again, there's a reviewbrah...
Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#6A fascinating example of a blog with comments that work. The commenters are polite, informed, and return to reply when the author engage them
Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#7I don't think critics should necessarily follow general audiences , anymore than you would want a food critic to rate mcdonalds.
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Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#8One of the interview questions I ask all UX Researchers is to open up rottentomatoes, sort recent films by rating and then look at the movies that have the lowest critic scores. Almost always you can see the audience score for those movies is much higher than the critic scores. I then ask why this is the case.
The overwhelming majority of answers involve critics being out of touch with the audience, critics being perhaps snobby, or watching movies in an elitist fashion whereas the audience just wants to sit back and relax, not think too much, just be entertained.
A very small minority of UX Researchers come to the correct conclusion, which is that most professional critics have to review every single movie, whereas the audience typically only goes to see movies that they are likely to enjoy, so that one should not be surprised that the audience score will often be significantly higher than the critic score.
Those researchers are typically the ones I hire.
Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#9Interesting article that shows via data that yes, critics are losing sync with audiences. Not that they were ever in sync? Although the data suggests that actually they are not that far off.
For me, I've always attributed a big difference of critics vs the general population is that critics have seen 10x the movies and so movies an audience finds interesting are often "been there, done that, and better" to a critic.
Other things I see which I'm not sure the cause and effect are movies that seem (to me) to be highly rated by critics for their message, direct or indirect, and not for whether they are actually good movies. An example to me (I know it's mistake to list one but I'm going to do it anyway), is Moonlight (2016). I'm not saying it's a bad movie but movie of the year? I saw it and other than remembering that it's about gay black men I remember absolutely nothing about the movie. It had zero impact for me. My feeling is it was chosen for its messages. That black men can be gay too. That black actors should be given more diversity in roles. That there should be more diverse movies with black leads. All of which I agree with. But the movie itself, while definitely a well made movie, had zero impact on me as a movie. I don't remember it. Conversely say, Women in the Dunes (1964), that movie will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Another random personal observation is it seems like "they" (the creators), have, at least for documentaries, figured out the formula for always making them crowd pleasers. They're the highest rated category both by my own experience looking up movies, and by the article. For me though, I've pretty much decided not to watch documentaries anymore because I see the formula and because I see they are super manipulative. Following the formula they can make you believe almost any conclusion about their topic.
Re: Are film critics losing sync with audiences?
#10I don't think critics should necessarily follow general audiences , anymore than you would want a food critic to rate mcdonalds.
On the other side of the coin, you can have situations like in 1989 when Jethro Tull beat Metallica for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance at the Grammy's.
Or when Macklemore beat… basically anyone else that was nominated. But I’m not sure the Grammy’s represent critical consensus?