Film Courage: Scott what's the difference between critique versus trolling?
Scott Menzel, Film Critic, Writer, Hollywood Critics Association Founder: Nowadays who knows?
I feel like some critics are almost trolls at this point because once they get their mind
made up about things, they seem like they can’t understand or respect someone else's
and I really do feel like social media is the blame for that because
everyone has become an expert. I think I'm probably one of part of the last generation where
I went to school for film criticism and I studied film, I grew up watching film and
I didn't just wake up one morning and say “Tomorrow I'm going to start a blog and I'm
going to write about movies and then everyone's going to accept me as a critic.” I went to
school for it whether it was Chapman University or Kutztown University [of Pennsylvania] where I
got my master’s and I studied film I studied film production, I studied film criticism,
I spent years watching movies reading books about it and in the last 15 years that almost
like kind of went out the window because and I will say that I think YouTube was the start of it
YouTube allowed and I know as part of this initial buzz on YouTube allowed the everyday person to be
able to record a video and give their opinion on something sure you had live Journal beforehand
or Myspace or whatever but YouTube kind of was this thing that caught on and nothing has
been able to to over overtake it right I mean out of all the videos platforms in the world
YouTube has has held strong for 15 years but I remember this because
I remember watching a lot of people who are my colleagues now doing YouTube video reviews
whether it was [Schmoes Know with Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis], whether it was Jeremy Jahns,
Chris Stuckmann and they are all kind of people who felt this love
of movies but they their their whole selling point was where Schmoes, the average Joe, we're
the thing was always we're the spouse, we're the average guy we're not the film critics we're not
the hoity-toity and I think for a period of time it was great because there was a group of them who
I think did their homework and they were really prioritize in doing this but then the floodgates
opened and everyone who liked movies decided that they were going to become a movie reviewer
and I think we're going to do it as a career so we turned into an industry where so many people
are putting their time and effort into film and criticism that number one don't
really have a long history of it they have no backing they have no schooling behind it
but I think the most troubling part of all this is who don't make money from it
so there's only so many jobs just like there's only so many movies and so many acting roles
and so many directing roles and whatnot there's only so many places for film critics
and with newspapers kind of falling and going away you don't have as many critics working
for those sources anymore so you have trades you saw what happened to Entertainment Weekly they're
now all digital all these websites that popped up they're all digital some of them went under
but got sold to other companies they keep getting sold over and over and over again
so there's a very limited amount of space that people can actually critique stuff
and yet everyone feels like they want their voice
heard so they create their own blog or their own movie website
and then they get in a weird way they get devastated
because they're like oh I can't make a living this is what I love I want to do it right and
then you got people doing Gofundme's and kickstarters and all this stuff to kind
of like hey I want to go this event I want to go here can you give me money to do this
and these people don't have money they can they can't support themselves and they want to do this
so in a weird way like when I was growing up we always remember seeing actors and everyone
always every hearing everyone like I know I talked about Jim Carrey like sleeping in his car and he
wanted to be an actor right he just he knew he wanted to be an actor and the struggle of that
it's weird because now we're like film critics where they're like we'll do anything for it and
it's very strange but I realized I didn't answer the question about trolls versus film critics
to me a troll is someone who like loves something
and like hates anyone who has a different opinion of that and will kind of seek out and want to
destroy a person for not sharing the same view or the same love that they have for something
a critic should be able to look at something subjectively regardless of whether they like
an actor an actress a filmmaker and judge a full product and look at it and say
is the script good is the score good is the production design good is the acting good
and be able to kind of call out the weaknesses and the strengths
of whatever that project is and I think there's a very big difference because I've noticed
fandom has gone so far past just being a Star Wars movie or Star Wars TV show or DC
it's gone to like individual people like I cannot tell you how many times I have been attacked
by people who I don't mind as actors or I like as actors but I don't like something they do and
like this hive mentality comes after you like the last the most recent one was Lady Gaga this past
year for House of Gucci I love Lady Gaga I think Lady Gaga is a gifted singer she's a great actress
how's the Gucci just didn't showcase her strongest moments and it was kind of laughably bad at times
you put that out and it's like they just don't freak and they come at you oh you like Kristen
Stewart how dare you she's a terrible actress and it's like they find everything they can
to use against you and it's just it's like this so mean spirited and so much hate
that it's almost like after a while it works against them because like you actually now have
like this negative reaction towards this person because their fans are so shitty towards you
because you're like I like this person I just didn't like this one thing and all these people
are like sitting here attacking me now and like you almost want to like would they don't seem
to realize too is that the people doing this we usually have the opportunity at some point
whether it's at an award show whether it's at a junket to talk to these to these talents so it's
weird because I think if I ever talk to Lady Gaga I think I would say to her probably at the end of
the interview or something like that I said by the way do you realize how shitty your fans are
because like I literally said I didn't like you in one thing but I still support you and I still
think you're great in these other things and these people came out at me sending me death threats
and like calling me like the worst person on the planet and all this stuff so I think that's that's
the really big difference is that as a critic even if you love someone you have to be able to
acknowledge that they're not going to be on their game all the time I love Tim Burton as a director
but sometimes he doesn't make good movies Alice in Wonderland not a good movie Dark Shadows not
a good movie doesn't mean I hate Tim Burton it just means those movies didn't work and that
happens with everything you can be a Marvel fan and think that Thor is a terrible movie you can
be a Marvel fan hate Ant-Man it doesn't matter like you can still love the product and the brand
they're never gonna nothing's perfect in this world you're never gonna have a 10 out of 10 every
time and I think people need to understand that I think that's the importance of criticism is that
you have to be able to look at an individual film and judge it on its own Merit it's it's not about
this person's body of work like I'm going to judge all of Leonardo DiCaprio just because he
was in Shutter Island that's it that's it that's the movie I'm judging him on no you have to look
at everyone and all they've done but also look at the individual project and judge that on its own
has trolling become a hobby yes a lot of them go too far and sometimes
you get caught up in the moment of it right like it's very weird as
someone who is a fan of people who are popular within the industry whether it's a Taylor Swift
The Kristen Stewart or Tim Burton Steven Spielberg whoever you almost like when they have something
you want to Champion you're almost like you almost become part of the the the hive we were talking
about the hive you almost become part of that hive because I wanted Kristen Stewart so badly
to win the Oscar right that like even though all the signs were pointing in the in the direction
that likes does not happening right she's not established enough she doesn't have enough people
in the industry don't like her like all these things are pointed in the direction that she was
gonna do it yet like you believe so strongly in the person and you want to champion them so hard
is that like you have to like Let It Go and the thing is and that's the difference that
I think between regular like critics journalists people who are fans versus trolls is that you can
support someone and you can like literally post about them every day if you love them that much
but at the end of the time like there's got to be a point where you can cut it off so like okay
Kristen Stewart lost she didn't win the Oscar you can't sit there for the next year posting about
like oh she should have won every day and there's people who do and I think it's very very unhealthy
that people become so obsessed with celebrities and films and pop stars and all this stuff because
you have to have focus elsewhere it's just what you need to for
you need to have like a life outside of these things these are these are
I don't even know how to put it but these are these are moments in your life right
like seeing a movie exists in in that moment for the two hours or two and a half hours
and you can like you can like it and you can talk about it and until you're blue in the
face but you have to have something else you have to have something else you look for whether it's
a partner whether it's going out to eat whether it's going to play sports you have to and I'm
really kind of worried about some of those in this in this industry and especially the trolls who
seem like they don't have anything else to do with their time and they have no other Ambitions but to
sit here and like support someone who I hate to say it probably doesn't even know you exist and
even if they know you exist they meet you they say hi they're thankful that you're supporting them
but they're going home afterwards and they're not going to say for the next
six months thinking about oh there's Julie I remember remember Julie we met Julia that's
screening and she was so sweet I'm going to talk about Julie every day for six like
no she's literally like okay met a really nice guy met that really nice guy there had a great
moment with him he was really nice that's it come up in conversation once ever that's it.