I think a lot about criticism, especially film/art criticism. Like why the fuck would anyone listen to me about a film. I am no expert really. People all over the internet and since the dawn of humanity have spouted bullshit about knowing something as '“truth” from Religion to drinking enough water, they say we live in an age of post truth, hey not to be blunt but its always been that way. Peoples opinions are just like assholes right?, except some shit more than others. Some assholes are just bloody diarrhea and some are polished logs. See I’m starting to realize film critique or any critical art writing at all is just people who know nothing manipulating words to make someone else, like magic believe their ultimate bullshit. Some is just more convincing than others. It just emotions put on a page even when objective things come into why art is bad or good its still silly bullshit. Some of it is real objective truth like how a baby is born or some shit but the writing I’m talking about is mostly opinions even if from experts it matters not because Art is always subjective right? So in that idea I started thinking about this hard after watching Nightcrawler from 2014. I had heard such great things about it. So many people loved it and in the end it made me feel numb, which I hate the most after a film. Didn’t move me at all. If you spend all the time an effort on a film I need it to move me, just my humble opinion right? It seemed so mediocre to me and people praised it as amazing. Sometimes hype of a film diminishes how you like it because of expectations and all that shit but me that works both ways. Top Gun Maverick was hyped for me but still blew away my expectations so why didn’t Nightcrawler work. Probably most I can find is it was detached for me and I need emotional attachment even if melodramatic as in Maverick. Also the ideas of Nightcrawaler had been explored much better in other films like Network in 1976. Those lofty ideas in Network are brilliant while the ones in Nightcrawler felt surface level. So that brings me to the point of the more you know. The more you know may not bring you more credibility with writing no that is just how you write something how persuasive you are with the magic as Alan Moore says. The knowledge you have of a subject can only be as good as what you know. What I’m saying is the more you know the better the ideas on it or maybe the less passionate your ideas are on it. With Nightcrawler I had seen Network and Drive 2011, so the pleasure and in turn the critic was ruined because it felt like a blending of both films with less substance. Now is that what the filmmaker David Gilroy wanted out of this because we are dealing with a sociopath I don’t know. But does it now lessen my personal opinion of the film cause I liked those other 2 better because they are more fresh and focused? So in the end does my rating of 2 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd even matter at all? Is it just that I knew too much?
In the end Criticism matters not. Analysis matters not because all of our opinions are just assholes, pumping out shit on the coat tails of real art. Me as a writer about real art is just biting my time til I actually make something worth wile. Connection in art is important that’s why you don’t have to be an expert to move someone with art you just have to find a way to connect. There is enough of us humans now that someone will connect, you just have to get it to them. All these things you don’t know mean so much and so little and the things you know mean even less. Pleasure enjoyment happiness these are the words of enlightened dull magical people trying to find something that isn’t made seem more real. What matters is every word thought up, to be a quaint spell, a longing of knocked around thoughts that you have no idea how they even became your own opinion. They once again matter not. I as a writer need to get these insane ideas out of my head before I’m truly driven mad. That is what you see here on these pages. We as writers are egotist especially the one critiquing things and its better to just admit. What does matter is did you entertain someone reading your drivel. So I ask as Gladiator did, Are you not ENTERTAINED!!
