Film review: A lost art or in the throes of change?

FILM critics are known to be opinionated, scalpel-witted, and even caustic.

- APARNA NAIR @T'Puram

FILM critics are known to be opinionated, scalpel-witted, and even caustic. Yet, the likes of Quentin Tarantino, the acclaimed Hollywood director known for mixing cathartic, suave violence, profane dialogues, and show of pop culture in his landmark movies, took them seriously, at least in his younger days. He later transformed into a critic himself and even contemplated making a movie titled The Movie Critic, which now remains one of his famously unrealized projects.

The role of critics has been one that has influenced both filmmakers and cinephiles, wielding, as they presumably do, the power to change the destinies of films and filmmakers. It is said that Alfred Hitchcock began to be taken seriously in his homeland, and in Hollywood, thanks to the French critics at the acclaimed publication Cahiers du Cinema.

Back home, too, there are several critics who are taken seriously. But most of the publications they worked for have downed shutters, especially after the social media wave struck. Social media influencers now call the shots, telling their followers what to watch, spicing their comments with tidbits on popular actors. Such juicy rants are also based on popular ranking sites where anything above three stars is considered apt for watching.