Film Courage: Did you see The Revenant?
Erick Weber, Editor-in-Chief of Awards Ace/YouTuber: Yes.
Film Courage: How did you like it?
Erick: I don't think it's [Alejandro] Iñárritu one of his best films. I think that when you look
at The Revenant for me and you look at you look at Leo DiCaprio one of the truly most talented
actors that we have today, I think that he in every performance is going to be exceptional or
better and when you look at that being his Oscar when you're like that's a shame because it's the
Wolf of Wall Street. I mean if you ask me what's the best Leo performance it's Wolf of Wall Street
it's not Revenant and that's the thing sometimes when we have those discussions about what was the
best performance and it turns out that I don't even think The Revenant was his best problem
let's say it's a bad one but it's like that's the one that we're going to pick for the Oscar
Blood Diamond sorry yeah I mean listen you could name so many right but I mean Wolf of
Wall Street again there's pretty much a perfect film for me a three-hour film that is literally
one of the funniest films what a comedy and yet so poignant about all its points about the
excesses of the rich but but when you look at The Revenant I just remember seeing that film
one of the first screenings of it and the weird thing is when you go to see a film like the red
and you come out and everyone is raving oh this is the best film I've ever seen and you go
did we watch the same film because that happens and you you go are they right or am I right you
start to doubt yourself I go back to the five Bloods the five Bloods was a film that
I watched on a screener that was right in the middle of the pandemic very early on and Netflix
had these huge hopes Spike Lee BlacKkKlansman oh man what a film I mean you want to talk about
recent Spike Lee films BlacKkKlansman is a million times better than the five Bloods but I remember
reading the initial thoughts the social reactions to defy Bloods the morning I the the Embargo broke
and I had my tweet ready to go and I looked and I go what the hell am I looking at like I looked at
my tweet and then I looked at what I'm reading I'm like Masterpiece this movie's forgettable Master
P what am I I said okay I sat there for a moment with my draft tweet of the review of defy Bloods
so and I said do I want to send this am I going to get like what's going to happen with this so I go
sent and then of course people ah look at this he doesn't know what he's talking about but
here's the thing ultimately what happened with that film was it a huge officer Oscar success
no the fight Buzz wasn't you have to stay true to your initial thoughts on a film and not be
persuaded to think otherwise and that's that's hard because in there's people that are going
to come after you and say you're wrong I'm not a huge fan of everything everywhere all at once
and I have my reasons I think it's excessive I think it's repetitive I think it's over long there
are people who think it's the best movie ever made or up there okay and you have to stay true
to what you believe and as a film critic evaluator anybody whatever your opinion of a film is is your
individual subjective opinion that said if you look over the track record of of somebody and I
think hopefully this is something I've earned over the 10 plus years I've been doing this is you have
a track record did this person which which side of the coin were they on on this film were they
on the up down and and if you look over the track record of your evaluations your critiques of films
if they are largely where everyone kind of lines up on it not that you're trying to do that but
if you are then then I think that's that's key too because if you're always on one side that's
completely different from everybody else that's different but I think the other challenge is a
lot of people want to again end like a Spike Lee with the five Bloods you you'd say this
is Spike Lee so it's got to be good no why why just because it's Spike Lee just because it's
director whoever name any director Nolan, Fincher, anyone currently working today any director you
have to look at that individual film The Past does not indicate the future you can't go say
this is because every film they ever made was good this one is and I think the five blood is a great
example of that it's it's not a great Spike Lee film and I stayed true to my thoughts and I think
over time I've been Vindicated I think we can get bullied into something you know you didn't like
the following versus Inception yep I like smaller films but but it's not something that you want to
raise your hand really and and pronounce to the film community well you you do you're gonna get
bullied I mean even everything everywhere I sent a tweet after I saw it I heard it was just so
great everything everywhere all once and then I I sit through and I'm like man this is extremely
repetitive at the end they are bashing you over the head with the same joke the same thoughts
almost an it's just it's it's too much it is an overload on the back end of that film and
I really it's funny that's a film talk about a film I turned against it was a film I felt great
about everything everywhere I was like I like this film and then oh man it's the diminishing
returns and I started to go really down on that but I sent a tweet out saying I think this is
I want to start a a new group called everything everywhere all at once is overrated but I'm afraid
no one will join me because they're afraid to admit it Well turns out one of the Daniels jumped
on and said yeah snarkly funnily oh I agree with you we agree it's not a good film like okay but
what's interesting is after that whole exchange I didn't think anything said I'm not going to
change I'm not going to delete the tweet this is what I believe what the director says you know did
I anger the director I don't know but but you have to be strong in your convictions fearless
and not worry about what other people think of you you know I go back to Cisco neighbor which I
grew up with watching that show at the movies you know every Sunday on PBS I'd watch that show and
Gene Siskel is my film critic hero of all time I mean I I think that he his mind and how he
evaluated films watching him and Ebert go back but especially Cisco I would listen to that man talk
and I'd say what a smart film person I want to be like Gene Siskel one day and one thing that he was
was very adamant about sticking to your original thoughts on something never wavering and they have
a great exchange between the two of them where he talks about the death of a Critic so the death of
a Critic is wanting to be light wanting to fit in wanting to be part of the group being afraid
of saying what you believe to be your experience with this film and like a lot of critics have an
issue with that because they don't want to stand out they're going to be like whoa wow you're the
guy who didn't like everything everywhere all at once yes I am and I have my very specific reasons
why and I'm not going to be bullied off of that platform and that takes you've got to be strong
you've got to be fearless and go I don't even care you just mute the replies on Twitter I've
done that plenty of times well a lot of film music art people are on the fringes anyways
yeah we're kind of used to it yeah maybe that's how we were in high school so okay great that's
how it is now 100 how I was yeah it's funny I had an exchange with my friends last last night
and we were with the hustle Premiere and he said I think a lot of people on Twitter they they think
you're like the bad guy the film film Twitter bad guy because you're like the mean jock from high
school and I'm like that is so funny to me as you say that because I was a nerd I was a full-on geek
okay I you're back to Anthony Michael Hall and 16 Candles that's who I was okay kind of in between
not really cool and not really totally a nerd but definitely not with the cool jaw kids and but I
think that's the power of I think that's who I am that's your power is that you're not really one of
anything you kind of can belong to any group and I think we need to do more of that is is to to be in
the same with films do not just ingest Marvel product do not just ingest four quad films go
out and look for that tiny film that will move you that gets you excited about Cinema again I go back
to last year a very small film from Tim Sutton funny face oh I mean that is a film that I have
watched that film I have the Vimeo link to that and I have absolutely exhausted the Vimeo views
on that I've watched it so much because the mood of that film and the direction and it's something
I would have never watched in the in the studio said hey will you watch this movie we believe
in this film it was gravitas Ventures and I go yeah it was it was like during there's nothing
else coming out I said let's see this I'm so glad I hit play on that because that was not theatrical
I had to watch a screener but that's what you're looking for when I watch funny face when I watch
Saint Maud when I go to we the animals I'm these recent films they're tiny films well
Saint Maud's obviously A24 but We The Animals these are films when you watch like wow this is
what I love and you know it when you see it it's just the artistic quality of the film is so high
and and those are those are the things I mean it's just like just vary your cinematic diet
do not just take in one kind of film see as much as possible and and stick to your
guns ultimately stick to your guns or whatever you think and whatever you believe in Champion
okay so that being said you wanting to stay true to what you believe in not trying to please other
people and say okay I like this do you listen to film critics and base what you see no you
don't okay never in fact I don't want to I don't want to know a lot of times we're lucky enough to
have seen one of the first screenings so there's not a lot of reaction out there so we'll see you
know Dominion I see Jurassic world Dominion on Monday night it comes out Thursday so I'll have
I'll see it where there's really not a lot of reaction about it so my my reaction to it will
be all I have I don't have anything else to base on I don't want to in fact when there's a film
that's already debuted let's say it's Sundance I didn't go tell your ride Venice any Film Festival
you name can I I'm gonna not like Elvis is a great example comes out here at the end of
the month I don't want to know about Elvis I've heard Austin Butler's amazing you can tell from
the from the trailers that he nailed this but I don't want to know anything else because I don't
want to have my opinion altered by someone else's opinion so I try to avoid it as much as possible
it's weird to me that I hear there are people and I've seen this I'm not going to name names there
are people who in social reactions coming out of a screening like say at Sundance have actually
looked at others you can very clearly tell they cherry pick things and put it cobbled together
and put their own reaction together if you aren't able to come up with your own thoughts about a
film that are absolutely organic with you and not originating from someone else then you shouldn't
be doing this you should only care about your specific reaction to a film I don't ever want to
be influenced by somebody else and that comes back to being strong in what you believe in and knowing
trusting your instincts so same thing with music if we go back to let's say the 80s or whatever
and you know whatever hit boy band of the you know just just being strong in the fact that I'm sorry
I can't you know we've come up with a lot of names I'm sure but you know guilty pleasure sure but but
something that's on the fringes and being okay I'm a fringe person oh and I'm I own it oh I'm
flying my freak flag I don't care 100 and that's part that that's part of the fun I mean like I
said when I was a kid I'd go I'd go to the record store and I'd say they'd have the top 40 singles
sitting there and I would look at number one and I go nah that's I've heard that a million times
let's go down to number 40. and let's take home number 40 because I haven't heard that and I was
always looking for the more obscure thing and I think that's even for me nowadays when I go
well I really want to watch things that haven't gotten the attention they deserve ultimately
they're rare I mean let's be honest not every small film is worthy of attention certainly
not every large film but the ones that are I think it's our job to get the films that deserve
attention that are smaller and not receiving any oxygen pump them up let let's get those let's
give them a runway people have sent me tweets saying hey Erick I think your service is really
valuable when you recommend something that I didn't even know about and I think that's the
power of of what we do is being able to bring eyes to something that perhaps would not have
them without you saying that this is something you need to put on your radar okay so you're
not promoting the soundtrack from Frozen yeah okay there's no way no way but but you know as
I say that you can come out of topic on Maverick and have the same reaction which is completely
populist everyone you know as as American apple pie film making as it gets but it still is a
great film in what it's doing and I think so you can't just say because it's big means it's bad
so you have to watch that too I think a lot of people are like whoa if it's not some small Indie
then I don't it doesn't have any value I'm like well let's try to just have a film being a film
period period regardless of budget regardless of Studio whoever's directing who's ever whoever's
in it the film has value as a film that's it that's you have to look at everything that way.