June 2018 - Cinematic Insights

Lack of Diversity is Impacting Film Reviews, Only Not in the Way You Might Think

Coming off the heels of an overall push for diversity within Hollywood, arguably the impetus being the #OscarsSoWhite reaction in 2015, there has been a call to action from several within the industry that this same sense of inclusion be extended to film criticism. Most recently, acclaimed actress Brie Larson (Room and the upcoming Captain Marvel), upon receiving her Crystal + Lucy Award, echoed a similar sentiment when she stated “I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about [A] Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t made for him.” Additionally, as reported by The Guardian, a recent report from the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism uncovered that of all the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes for the 100 top-grossing films in 2017, 77.8% were written by men and 22% by women, with 82% of reviewers being white and only 18% from “under-represented racial groups.”

Larson’s statement coupled with this recent report raises the question of whether films focused on diverse ages, genders, and nationalities, such as A Wrinkle in Time, are being inadequately assessed, and if the bulk of critics being white males could lead to a prejudice, whereby film evaluations are reflecting a bias against diversity. While the push for different perspectives in film criticism is the natural and long overdue next step to better reflect the opinions of society as a whole, psychological research on stereotyping and prejudice indicates that such a measure for inclusion may not have the effect many are anticipating.

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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

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(2 / 4)

While Fallen Kingdom makes an effort to take the story in some intriguing new directions, the film disappointingly focuses on a by the numbers conflict and falls prey to the same shortcomings as the previous entry, leading to a mixed experience.

Fallen Kingdom, the follow up to 2015’s colossal box office hit Jurassic World, roared into theaters over the weekend, and with the release come some dino-sized expectations to deliver on more prehistoric action and adventure. Although not flawless, Jurassic World for the most part was able to provide fans of the franchise with thrills reminiscent of the original Jurassic Park even if the characters and overarching themes severely paled by comparison. Fallen Kingdom thankfully makes an effort to avoid falling into the common sequel pitfall of merely providing a bigger, stronger, more ferocious version of its predecessor, and attempts to take the story in some new directions. The film’s unfortunate reluctance to follow through on this initial potential, coupled with being crippled by many of 2015’s Jurassic World’s weaknesses, results in a mixed experience however.

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Critical Divide: Why Audiences and Critics are Split on Hereditary

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Last week, Hereditary finished within the top 5 at the U.S. box office, with its $13 million domestic gross setting a record as independent movie studio A24’s largest opening ever. A24 is responsible for some extremely well-regarded movies such as the Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight, and similarly praised films such as Ex Machina, The Disaster Artist, and Lady Bird to name a few, proving this record to be no small feat. Additionally Hereditary scored an astronomically high 92% Rotten Tomatoes score as well as an arguably even more impressive score of 86 on Metacritic (and a perfect 4 star rating from Cinematic Insights). Despite all of this overwhelming acclaim, the film received an atrocious D+ CinemaScore from audiences, which is very much at odds with what critics have been praising about the film. This result begs the question of why this discrepancy exists.

Here are the 4 reasons why audiences and critics are split on Hereditary.

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Incredibles 2 Review

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(3.5 / 4)

With the same embrace of unadulterated fun as its predecessor mixed with some exploration of timely issues, Incredibles 2 is a dazzling thrill proving that the extensive wait for this entry was well worth it.

Of the extensive pantheon of Pixar films, The Incredibles always seemed to be the ripest story for a continuation, as the original was a fantastic origin story that set the groundwork for more adventures with the super-powered Parr family. This made it all the more surprising to me when other Pixar sequels seemed to take priority, such as Finding Nemo, Cars, and Monsters, Inc. Although The Incredibles is quintessential Pixar with the story being unafraid to tackle adult themed stories such as marital problems and midlife crises, the series offered a distinct flavor that its peers never had, prioritizing the thrill of action and adventure over the deeper sentiment possessed by other Pixar films. Returning writer and director Brad Bird understands that this embrace of adventure and fun is what makes The Incredibles so special and Incredibles 2 continues in this spirit producing possibly the funniest Pixar film to date.

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Hold that Tweet! Why Snap Film Judgments are Negatively Impacted by Cognitive Biases

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With the proliferation of social media it has become increasingly difficult to not encounter at least a few opinions about current hot topics when scrolling through your newsfeed. This is especially true when it comes to the latest film releases. Over the past weekend it seemed as if every time I looked through my Twitter feed I was bombarded with preliminary reactions to currently trending movies, such as the popular horror film Hereditary or the box office hit Oceans 8. Recently, during the annual Festival of Disruption, esteemed writer and director David Lynch commented on this abundance of opinions about films on social media, stating that “Unless you’re a poet, words will fail you.”

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Hereditary Review

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(4 / 4)

Hereditary is a game changing horror masterpiece that subverts all tropes and expectations associated with the demonic possession subgenre, delivering a tightly wound story that explodes with haunting imagery you will not soon forget.

Hereditary, which marks the feature directorial debut of Ari Aster, has been receiving rave reviews for several months now since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Critics have been heralding the film as the next Exorcist with many claiming it to be one of the most terrifying films of all time. Although this sort of hype is always enticing to hear, too often in the past have other horror films, such as It Follows and The Witch received similar accolades and have not quite lived up to this acclaim. Both of these films were without a doubt strong entries in the horror genre, but both were somewhat overblown in terms of their impact on the genre, resulting in an initially disappointing reaction from myself. This is not the case with Hereditary, as Ari Aster has crafted a truly game changing cinematic masterpiece that subverts any expectations you might have about this seemingly familiar story until arriving at a chilling conclusion that will haunt your dreams forever.

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Adrift Review

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(1.5 / 4)

Adrift suffers from a misguided narrative structure, which diminishes a captivating true story about love and survival into a slog of dull and saccharine moments.

There is a scene towards the beginning of Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Adrift in which Sam Claflin’s Richard Sharp is on his first date with Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) and he is asked to describe why he has devoted his life to sailing. After providing an impassioned explanation about how sailing fosters this intense feeling about being connected with nature, Richard apologizes and states that his answer must have sounded incredibly cheesy. This line proves to be prophetic regarding the film, as despite having all the makings of an epic romantic adventure, the amazing true story manages to come off as inauthentic and monotonous, due entirely to a costly narrative decision.

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