Review Culture in Film

Over the course of this blog and its various entries, the predominant focus has been the audience's relationship with critics, and how that relationship has evolved and shifted due to the popularity of social media. The World Wide Web has seemingly replaced "expertise with amateurs, fanboys and obscurantists" ( Dissent Magazine ) but has also arguably enhanced criticism and review culture into a new realm where audiences can be just as influential. It's also provided new opportunities for critics to produce impressive work and has, in the words of Charles Taylor, "given a new home to film criticism" - a sentiment that I agree with. I am a fan of film criticism and heavily engage with it, both as a consumer and as a producer: I co-own a blog entitled  The Cynical Cinephiles  where I write and publish reviews of films that have recently been released in cinemas of my own. Without the means of the World Wide Web, I would not be able to explore this outlet or

Previous entries on this blog have explored how critics and audiences have differed in their reactions to certain films - critics despised Bright  (2017) but audiences responded far more positively, and critics showered praise on Blade Runner 2049 (2017) but this universal acclaim couldn't convince a large proportion of the general public to buy a movie ticket, resulting in a lacklustre box-office total. Numbers and viewing figures heavily indicate that there is a large and growing disparity between film reviewers and a general movie-going audience, so I conducted a survey entitled 'Review Culture and Audience Engagement' to gauge if audiences are affected by critical response to a film or whether review culture is becoming less relevant due to the rise of social media. Out of a total of 25 responses, 21 of them were completed by people in the 16-24 age bracket. 3 responses were given by people in the 25-35 demographic whilst only 1 person in the 46-54 demographic comp

We are living in an era where films garner fan bases like they never have done before due to the presence and popularity of social media. Nowadays, "liking" or "loving" a film simply isn't enough - to truly express your commitment and adoration of a film, it seems one must set up a social media account (primarily a Twitter one) and effuse over the film's properties, such as its leading actors and its director. A number of films over the past few months have ignited fans' passions and resulted in a twitter community of its own. One of these films has been Call Me By Your Name (dir. Luca Guadagnino 2017).  It's based on the Andre Aciman book of the same name about a love affair between a 17 year-old American-Italian boy and a visiting 24 year-old American Jewish scholar in 1980s Italy. The film stars Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer as Elio and Oliver respectively. Due to the film's LGBT visibility and romantic story, it has received a wide f