\
  The most prestigious law school admissions discussion board in the world.
BackRefresh Options Favorite

Ocean's 8 Stars Blame Dominance of Male Critics for Film's Mixed Reviews

Ocean's 8 stars blame dominance of male critics for film's m...
dun garrison
  06/15/18
...
dun garrison
  06/17/18
"“I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what...
Razzle-dazzle Claret Pit
  06/17/18
To be fair, "This is misogynistic and bigoted thinki...
Ruby Masturbator
  06/17/18
Being nonwhite/nonmale means never having to be coherent/con...
Turquoise autistic office laser beams
  06/17/18
Lol why do libs always have to make a long list of all the c...
wild sandwich brunch
  06/17/18
These subgroups all hate each other and will complain if not...
Razzle-dazzle Claret Pit
  06/17/18
Larson getting MAF tweets from “queer women of color”
wild sandwich brunch
  06/17/18
and what do they attribute SJWars Last Jedi's glowing review...
Thriller Disrespectful Sound Barrier
  06/17/18
We already had a thread on this, you bigot
obsidian hell corn cake
  06/17/18
...
dun garrison
  08/10/18
...
Adventurous mauve hall associate
  08/10/18
...
Greedy purple rigor
  08/10/18
...
Medicated mediation dragon
  08/10/18
...
Exciting University
  08/10/18
Some shitty feminist revenge flick starring one ugly Mexican...
big mad-dog skullcap menage
  08/10/18


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: June 15th, 2018 10:34 PM
Author: dun garrison

Ocean's 8 stars blame dominance of male critics for film's mixed reviews

Mindy Kaling and Cate Blanchett echo Brie Larson in calling for greater diversity among reviewers

Stars of Ocean’s 8, the heist movie featuring all-female leads, have accused male critics of failing to appreciate their film.

Speaking to Yahoo Movies, Mindy Kaling called the dominance of white male reviewers “unfair”. “If I had to base my career on what white men wanted I would be very unsuccessful, so there is obviously an audience out there who want to watch things like [Ocean’s 8], what I work on, what Sarah [Paulson] works on.”

Co-star Cate Blanchett concurred, saying the media had failed to make the mindshift the movie industry had when it came to gender equality. “The conversation has to change,” she said, “and the media has a huge responsibility.”

It really sucks that reviews matter — but reviews matter

Brie Larson

A study by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative was released earlier this week, examining the gender and ethnic profile of US critics who wrote about last year’s 100 most successful films found 80% were men and 82% white.

Such makeup was well-known, said Blanchett, but only belatedly being raised. “When you start pointing that stuff out you realise there’s a certain gaze that looks at women.”

Sign up to our Film Today and Close Up emails

Read more

Kaling referred to Meryl Streep’s attack on reviews aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, which she felt prioritised the views of men. Promoting the film Suffragette in 2015, Streep said she felt the ratio adversely affected ticket sales for female-skewed films.

“I submit to you that men and women are not the same, they like different things,” she said. “Sometimes they like the same thing, but sometimes their tastes diverge. If the Tomatometer is slighted so completely to one set of tastes that drives box office in the United States, absolutely.”

On the subject of Ocean’s 8, Kaling said: “And the thing about so much of what this movie is, I think white men, critics would enjoy it, would enjoy my work, but often I think there is a critic who will damn it in a way because they don’t understand it, because they come at it at a different point of view, and they’re so powerful, Rotten Tomatoes.”

The spin-off from Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven film and its two sequels has so far avoided the backlash that met Paul Feig’s gender-flipped Ghostbusters film two years ago. It topped the US box office last weekend, fuelled by an audience that was 69% female, and beat the receipts of Ocean’s Eleven and its two sequels (although the numbers were not adjusted for inflation).

On Wednesday, the actor Brie Larson, who won an Oscar for her role in kidnap drama Room, announced an initiative by the Sundance and Toronto film festivals to allocate 20% of their journalist passes to critics from under represented groups.

She flagged the box office flop of A Wrinkle in Time, Ava DuVernay’s fantasy drama based on novel by Madeleine L’Engle, as a victim of the lack of critical comprehension.

“I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work about A Wrinkle in Time,” said Larson at the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards in Beverly Hills. “It wasn’t made for him! I want to know what it meant to women of colour, biracial women, to teen women of colour.”

“Am I saying I hate white dudes?” continued Larson. “No, I am not. What I am saying is if you make a movie that is a love letter to women of colour, there is an insanely low chance a woman of colour will have a chance to see your movie, and review your movie.”

Larson added: “It really sucks that reviews matter – but reviews matter. Good reviews out of festivals give small, independent films a fighting chance to be bought and seen. Good reviews help films gross money, good reviews slingshot films into awards contenders. A good review can change your life. It changed mine.”

However, a number of journalists have taken issue with the sentiment that someone’s gender and ethnic background dictates your response to art. Variety’s Guy Lodge, who also writes for the Guardian and Observer, pointed out that a number of female critics – including Time’s Stephanie Zacharek and Vulture’s Emily Yoshida and – have concurred with the general lukewarm response to Ocean’s 8.

Meanwhile, Buzzfeed’s Alison Willmore protested that such logic missed the real objective – for more diversity in all professions – and set a dangerous precedent.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/15/oceans-8-dominance-men-film-reviews

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36254516)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 5:53 PM
Author: dun garrison



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261777)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 5:56 PM
Author: Razzle-dazzle Claret Pit

"“I don’t need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work about A Wrinkle in Time,” said Larson at the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards in Beverly Hills. “It wasn’t made for him! I want to know what it meant to women of colour, biracial women, to teen women of colour.” "

Does this mean that for "white" movies we should prioritize white male critics at the expense of minority/female critics?



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261800)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 6:00 PM
Author: Ruby Masturbator

To be fair,

"This is misogynistic and bigoted thinking, and it saddens me that the white male cis-patriarchy has colonized your mind to the extent that you are now asking deeply problematic questions like this, brother. (But don't worry, I don't blame you; I know that you're just a dumb--but noble!--black ape who doesn't have the intellectual capacity to independently question anything yourself, which is why we are calling this out for you and on your behalf. Stay strong, 'homie'!)" - Liberals

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261818)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 6:02 PM
Author: Turquoise autistic office laser beams

Being nonwhite/nonmale means never having to be coherent/consistent

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261823)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 6:13 PM
Author: wild sandwich brunch

Lol why do libs always have to make a long list of all the categories of oppressed groups they supposedly care about? Isn't women of colour inclusive of the other two groups?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261878)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 6:14 PM
Author: Razzle-dazzle Claret Pit

These subgroups all hate each other and will complain if not explicitly named.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261883)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 6:28 PM
Author: wild sandwich brunch

Larson getting MAF tweets from “queer women of color”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261954)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 6:29 PM
Author: Thriller Disrespectful Sound Barrier

and what do they attribute SJWars Last Jedi's glowing reviews to? Same bunch of bigoted white males?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261960)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 17th, 2018 6:30 PM
Author: obsidian hell corn cake

We already had a thread on this, you bigot

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36261964)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 10th, 2018 4:50 AM
Author: dun garrison



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36590670)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 10th, 2018 6:02 AM
Author: Adventurous mauve hall associate



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36590738)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 10th, 2018 7:13 AM
Author: Greedy purple rigor



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36590829)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 10th, 2018 7:24 AM
Author: Medicated mediation dragon



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36590843)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 10th, 2018 7:15 AM
Author: Exciting University



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36590833)



Reply Favorite

Date: August 10th, 2018 7:17 AM
Author: big mad-dog skullcap menage

Some shitty feminist revenge flick starring one ugly Mexican chick as the lead just got a 97% on the Tomatometer, with several glowing reviews by white males that mention the male gaze and getting their balls stomped on. I think there's more at work here than misogyny

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4003153&forum_id=2#36590834)