Scott Menzel, Film Critic, Writer, Hollywood Critics Association Founder: Are people
going to turn on Jordan Peele if Nope is not good?
Film Courage: I’m hoping to get your thoughts on this I found a 2017
article in the financial review about Steven Spielberg and the writer says few great film
directors are as picked on as Steven Spielberg and then the article continues to say partly
this is down to his outside success which sits ill at ease with our notion of an artist
I find that interesting do you think success brings a distrust of the artist after a while
it brings more criticism for sure because when you have someone like Steven Spielberg
who raised the bar so much very early on show us what that did for like the horror movie genre
and it's still talked about to this day Jurassic Park, Schindler's List
the older he gets the projects he takes on they're not as many home runs or they're not
as consistent but I think he's making movies that are more
what he wants to do he's kind of earned the right to make the movies that he wants to make
and that piece makes me immediately think of West Side Story because there was so much criticism
around West Side Story and I'm not saying that they were wrong but there is a lot of criticism
with the Latino culture about how they were presented in the movie and how a certain
filmmaker should have been directing that movie but I think he's at a point where he's kind of
a legacy director and he's earned his stripes that if you're a studio and
Steven Spielberg walks into your office and goes hey I want to remake West Side Story I
don't really think anyone's going to turn him down right and I think people forget about that
and it there is a discussion to be had there about whether certain filmmakers really should
be tackling certain topics and whether other filmmakers would be better suited for that
but I do think you kind of earn your right to do a lot of stuff when you've proven yourself so much
and so much of film history is centered around what you accomplished close encounters Indiana
Jones like there's so much stuff that he has been a part of that you can't take away from it's just
like you kind of get a pass you kind of get to do what you want but I do think that the older
a director becomes the more criticism he faces and you you don't have to just use Steven Spielberg
look at Martin Scorsese how many how many people have been criticizing him more Clint Eastwood
yeah how many people criticize him now Woody Allen for other reasons but Woody Allen has always been
sort of a one-note filmmaker right it's always a rich socialites getting together for something
he's been making the same movie since the 80’s but only because of the controversy around him
that people start being like oh he's not that good of a director it's like I don't know he's
like literally making the same movie over and over again like so if this is not good then
those other movies weren't that good either so yeah I think at the end of the day that's that's
really what it comes down to is that I think it's easy to become a punching bag but it's even more
easy to be a punching bag in a modern age when you're an older white guy it's something that
i've I definitely noticed people are not afraid to throw older white men underneath the bus anymore
and in terms of the the scope of West Side Story there were a lot of cast members right so to give
this to a newer director would be this is someone who's directed large-scale production so not just
his name but also expertise some some would argue that he didn't have a background in musicals again
the story the subject matter is very sensitive and it's again you're talking about a movie
that came out originally in the 50s and people have problems with that regardless of whether
Rita Moreno is in it they still have problems with the way that that story was told
and people still view it as a classic but again like a lot of movies made in different generations
they don't necessarily are up to par with the way things are today and I think that's
the problem I think if if Steven Spielberg wanted to remake West Side Story in the 90’s
the approach and the criticism on it would have been a lot different sure nowadays it's sort of
like no why didn't like Lin-Manuel Miranda direct that he would have been a much better
director he's Latino he would have gotten the storyline he would have gave him more emotion
and that movie also on unfairly got a lot of hate because of the whole Ansel Elgort thing
and people criticizing them for like nobody going and bashing him on that tour which is like
I think people forget that just because one person does something crappy to one person
doesn't mean that he's crappy to everyone this is not a Harvey Weinstein situation on our hands
and sometimes people can get called out and they can learn from their mistakes and it also depends
on the person's age he's a young guy we make a lot of bad decisions when we're in high school
in college before and he probably just made a bad decision so as long as he learns from
it and grows from it it's fine but that movie I didn't love that movie but I feel like that movie
really got like the bad end of the stick I don't know I don't know how else to put it because I
feel like it was just always on the chopping block for so many people and so going forward and maybe
younger directors who are earning their stripes is that something that they will have to face
that that they will be once you get to be a certain level now you're just you you have
a target on your back basically it's so hard how everyone turns on someone now right like
we saw with Patty Jenkins with 1984. everyone loved Wonder Woman everyone loved
Monster and then all of a sudden everyone turned like we we forget that filmmakers and actors
they're not perfect they take roles they make movies that sometimes don't work or they don't
connect they don't resonate and it's so weird because I don't know how to answer that question
because I almost feel like it is dependent on a person like are people going to turn on Jordan
Peele if Nope is not good I don't know and and then it becomes this weird conversation about
is it a race thing is it an orientation thing is it what the person stands for
like are we like because Jordan Peele is such a inspiring filmmaker and someone
who's so ambitious and takes chances and made two movies that were very critically acclaimed
is it okay because he's a person of color who puts other people of color in his movies for Nope
and I'm not saying I don't know I haven't seen it but if Nope is not good will he get the past
because of all the other things he he he's done or will people turn on him and be like I guess
that gravy train's over this guy is a terrible filmmaker what a terrible movie it's so hard
to know anymore because you watch everyone turn so quickly on someone and it doesn't matter what it's
a really weird time to be in this industry because you say one thing wrong and
and a whole entire group of people can turn against you you make one bad film and it's like
they lost it it's crazy I don't know it's such a it's such a weird way to think because
we started this question with Steven Spielberg and Steven Spielberg has consistently made
a good movie and a bad movie a good movie and a bad movie a good movie in a bad movie
it's just the way that it is and again it's all subjective
film all art is subjective what's bad to some might be good to someone else.