Now even critics—purportedly arbiters of mass taste—are too siphoned into their own bubbles to the point where one of the most prominent doesn't feel like reviewing the year's biggest film. I completely agree that there is some tacit acknowledgement to not understand or engage with cultural items that are not "real art," leaving only fanbases to grapple with what is tailored completely to their own taste. Ehrlich happily reviewed Barbie and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, after all. Marvel aside, I think we are still witnessing the fallout of Disney capitulating to Star Wars fans and barring Rian Johnson from directing a sequel to The Last Jedi.
i love the new thing critics & intellectuals do where they just write stuff off because it “depresses” them. it wasn’t that long ago people were going to WAR over star wars and now they just pretend that stuff doesn’t exist because they only have to hear about it when they go to an extended family gathering
like you can’t just write about stuff you think is cool lmbo
Writing about stuff you think is cool used to be for Substack, and now the tables have turned. Every staff critic at every publication thinks their byline is actually a blog (save for, like, Brody).
and when brody (or ehrlich!) do real violence against texts people say they have dementia or are a humiliating millennial.
thing that is most crazy making is that they will shrug off important stuff, but then be incapable of calling actually “just okay” stuff just okay. like do you guys know how to read or write
Brody on Wicked: "Are we to ignore that other films featuring beclothed CGI animals would not take time to consider digitally rendered vegan textiles for these creatures?"
irrelevant but: eternal sunshine was a good album I felt, aside from its lead single. it was definitely deliberately minor because Ariana doesn't have Taylor Swift's instinct to be totally silent right up until dropping an album called like… "FUCK YOU! CHEATING'S FINE WHEN I DO IT!" (Something else that Ariana never really gets credit for, incidentally, is being extremely parasocially entwined with her fanbase, possibly even more than Taylor now. I think she was in like… a group chat with random fans over COVID?)
I sort of wanted ES to get an AOTY nod—though I don't want anybody I actually like to win this year because they won't give it to Beyonce so whoever wins will be The Person Who Robbed Beyonce. Even though I'm a huge TTPD partisan… if Taylor wins I'm going into a bunker for about two weeks.
I deeply disliked that Ehrlich piece because it felt like he was saying the only reason to negatively review anything was if you thought it was actively evil—but that's ridiculous! For one thing the ways in which a movie can be "evil" or not are many. But it also makes it seem as if your negative reviews will be motivated by a sense of your own self-importance. (I also found it distasteful to say that he passed it off to his female boss and then he mentions her grade inflation… like… have a little self awareness about passing off what you see as a big waste of your time to The Nearest Girl lol. But that might be unfair.)
totally agree re: ES. something is amiss with her relationship to fans and i don’t know who’s flying that plane.
i think TS should win AOTY every year for the rest of time. like if it’s gonna be joever then let’s like go for it
i agree with all your points about ehrlich’s review, but i also appreciate just letting the crazy take hold. like he’s getting at a problem i do think plagues the movie and his career and i like that he pauses to unpack that rather than run with an argument about the film itself that his heart isn’t in. he’s doing real old school critic behavior and, while i completely disagree with him, i think it has its place
Hi Clare! Came to this post through Fran's newsletter (thanks Fran!) and really enjoyed. re: Erlich and Wicked... Man, I think criticism/critics spent soooooo much of the past decade or two reckoning *hard* with the end of the public inability to respond directly to criticism (IE, you used to have to write an angry letter to a newspaper if you disagreed with Gene Siskel and now you can SWAT David Erlich in his home for not liking Wicked) and now they are just... sleepy? I think now many of them don't know how to ask, "So, can we be serious again, please?" And I guess everybody is just generally tired of DISCOURSE and "getting yelled at" and would like to go back to a more one-sided model (although maybe I'm wrong about that last part!). Anyhow! Great post even though I have legitimately never heard an Arianna Grande song and don't care to (I'm old) but you painted a picture. Thanks for both things!
i totally agree. the democratization of "criticism" and "public intellectualism" has made anybody with a phone think they exist on the same plane as critics. granted, this time has produced a lot of actual "critics" who are basically just people with phones, but, idk. watching a lot of movies or having a steadfast ideological outlook doesn't make you a good critic.
people across the board need to be more comfortable having their ideas challenged and their minds changed. and critics can't get lazy. maybe part of the job description needs to become "able to debate people without having a public breakdown," as unfortunate as that is. critics are something else now entirely, i guess
there are good ariana songs!! i was listening to eternal sunshine today and found a lot to like as ambient car music. but "break up with your boyfriend, i'm bored" is my favorite song of hers
I was really befuddled by Ehlrich's non review. Like, is this what we're doing now? It's not enough that the masses shout "let people enjoy things" but now even critics just throw in the towel? Nothing matters? Unbelievable.
i agree that where he lands is like, no we cannot be doing this, you have to form opinions. but because it's actually not a review and just a newsletter, i think his reflection on how trump and wokeness and meanness and niceness have broken peoples' brains is really useful. i also think that it's not just him: plenty of critics and just, like, people on letterboxd are saying "this is fine i guess" with this really rare kind of cold distance because they don't understand how to like wicked but don't want to rain on the parade. when the parade is dork adult men liking deadpool it's easy to rain on it, but when the party is likeminded people you feel like you're punching down at if you ask them what they're doing, it feels like you're doing a political transgression. this is a new and scary mechanic of liberal individualism which, even if he falls in line with it, ehrlich explains pretty well.
To play devil's advocate, who cares? Genuinely, if he writes a real review it can only hurt his career because this film is intersectional with girl power bullshit and has a bald sextuply pierced black woman (?) as the lead so any criticism is NOT OKAY and MISSES THE POINT. The people who not just want but NEED to like this and other similar media will do so no matter how terrible it actually is and most non-gay non-15-to-45 women will have zero awareness of it even existing
Just stumbled on your newsletter and read a couple before this. I love how passionate you are! I haven’t seen wicked and I am not a movie person so I don’t keep up with any of the craze around them but everything I have heard about wicked has been positive so it’s cool to read a unique take. I also just read your Paul mescal piece before this and am curious if you watched Ariana grande & Paul mescals conversation via variety YouTube that came out a couple weeks ago 😆 I saw a clip of it and they looked like they were in love which I thought was interesting because they are both in relationships that have caused quite a stir in certain parts of tik tok. Would love your thoughts if you did see it!
Awesome read. Makes me want to see the film in a way that is as equally problematic as the concept of “let them like it, I guess- it’s fine”, in my case the “things are getting bad out there dammit so much for getting a BFA” kind of grudge-watch. I have read more about this movie than any other movie in the last few years- save for Tar and the Leyla Seydoux film “the beast.”
I think most blockbusters are dumb. I stopped reading everyone’s think pieces. I went to the theater on an edible and I had a magical time. I listened to the soundtrack while cleaning and teared up over the voices and some nostalgia. It’s actually not the end of humanity to “just line things”. This isn’t the Minecraft Movie.
It’s truly not worth reading think pieces on. Go in, make your own opinion. It’s not that deep. If you like musicals you’ll probably have a great time.
I don't mind reading a piece that's critical of a movie or show that I enjoyed. But this essay didn't even engage with the movie. Merely waved a hand calling it bad and said it was based on a preschool-level show, and then proceeded to maunder over tangentially related pop culture themes. I wanted to know why Wicked made her crazy. I have no idea.
Does all art have to be Good? I haven’t seen wicked and am neither here nor there on Ariana but does wicked or Moana have to be fine cinema for people to enjoy it? I hate the “let people enjoy things” sentiment, but in this case idk? We don’t have to subject things that are the media equivalent of a pop tart to the same criticism as a Michelin starred restaurant
Now even critics—purportedly arbiters of mass taste—are too siphoned into their own bubbles to the point where one of the most prominent doesn't feel like reviewing the year's biggest film. I completely agree that there is some tacit acknowledgement to not understand or engage with cultural items that are not "real art," leaving only fanbases to grapple with what is tailored completely to their own taste. Ehrlich happily reviewed Barbie and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, after all. Marvel aside, I think we are still witnessing the fallout of Disney capitulating to Star Wars fans and barring Rian Johnson from directing a sequel to The Last Jedi.
i love the new thing critics & intellectuals do where they just write stuff off because it “depresses” them. it wasn’t that long ago people were going to WAR over star wars and now they just pretend that stuff doesn’t exist because they only have to hear about it when they go to an extended family gathering
like you can’t just write about stuff you think is cool lmbo
Writing about stuff you think is cool used to be for Substack, and now the tables have turned. Every staff critic at every publication thinks their byline is actually a blog (save for, like, Brody).
and when brody (or ehrlich!) do real violence against texts people say they have dementia or are a humiliating millennial.
thing that is most crazy making is that they will shrug off important stuff, but then be incapable of calling actually “just okay” stuff just okay. like do you guys know how to read or write
Brody on Wicked: "Are we to ignore that other films featuring beclothed CGI animals would not take time to consider digitally rendered vegan textiles for these creatures?"
ijbol
irrelevant but: eternal sunshine was a good album I felt, aside from its lead single. it was definitely deliberately minor because Ariana doesn't have Taylor Swift's instinct to be totally silent right up until dropping an album called like… "FUCK YOU! CHEATING'S FINE WHEN I DO IT!" (Something else that Ariana never really gets credit for, incidentally, is being extremely parasocially entwined with her fanbase, possibly even more than Taylor now. I think she was in like… a group chat with random fans over COVID?)
I sort of wanted ES to get an AOTY nod—though I don't want anybody I actually like to win this year because they won't give it to Beyonce so whoever wins will be The Person Who Robbed Beyonce. Even though I'm a huge TTPD partisan… if Taylor wins I'm going into a bunker for about two weeks.
I deeply disliked that Ehrlich piece because it felt like he was saying the only reason to negatively review anything was if you thought it was actively evil—but that's ridiculous! For one thing the ways in which a movie can be "evil" or not are many. But it also makes it seem as if your negative reviews will be motivated by a sense of your own self-importance. (I also found it distasteful to say that he passed it off to his female boss and then he mentions her grade inflation… like… have a little self awareness about passing off what you see as a big waste of your time to The Nearest Girl lol. But that might be unfair.)
totally agree re: ES. something is amiss with her relationship to fans and i don’t know who’s flying that plane.
i think TS should win AOTY every year for the rest of time. like if it’s gonna be joever then let’s like go for it
i agree with all your points about ehrlich’s review, but i also appreciate just letting the crazy take hold. like he’s getting at a problem i do think plagues the movie and his career and i like that he pauses to unpack that rather than run with an argument about the film itself that his heart isn’t in. he’s doing real old school critic behavior and, while i completely disagree with him, i think it has its place
Someone get this post to Maureen Dowd's inbox.
I loved Wicked (the movie) but I admire the fervour in this piece
bravo on this one, a gauntlet that never loses its thread - always wondering how i can write as muscularly as exactly this!
OMG… thank you sm 🙏 i really struggled with this one… it’s always the writing about 10 things too many challenge
Hi Clare! Came to this post through Fran's newsletter (thanks Fran!) and really enjoyed. re: Erlich and Wicked... Man, I think criticism/critics spent soooooo much of the past decade or two reckoning *hard* with the end of the public inability to respond directly to criticism (IE, you used to have to write an angry letter to a newspaper if you disagreed with Gene Siskel and now you can SWAT David Erlich in his home for not liking Wicked) and now they are just... sleepy? I think now many of them don't know how to ask, "So, can we be serious again, please?" And I guess everybody is just generally tired of DISCOURSE and "getting yelled at" and would like to go back to a more one-sided model (although maybe I'm wrong about that last part!). Anyhow! Great post even though I have legitimately never heard an Arianna Grande song and don't care to (I'm old) but you painted a picture. Thanks for both things!
thank you!!
i totally agree. the democratization of "criticism" and "public intellectualism" has made anybody with a phone think they exist on the same plane as critics. granted, this time has produced a lot of actual "critics" who are basically just people with phones, but, idk. watching a lot of movies or having a steadfast ideological outlook doesn't make you a good critic.
people across the board need to be more comfortable having their ideas challenged and their minds changed. and critics can't get lazy. maybe part of the job description needs to become "able to debate people without having a public breakdown," as unfortunate as that is. critics are something else now entirely, i guess
there are good ariana songs!! i was listening to eternal sunshine today and found a lot to like as ambient car music. but "break up with your boyfriend, i'm bored" is my favorite song of hers
Have so many conflicting feelings about what's said here but it was a really engaging & interesting read - thanks for sharing!
thank you!!
I was really befuddled by Ehlrich's non review. Like, is this what we're doing now? It's not enough that the masses shout "let people enjoy things" but now even critics just throw in the towel? Nothing matters? Unbelievable.
Good article enjoyed very much.
thank you sm!
i agree that where he lands is like, no we cannot be doing this, you have to form opinions. but because it's actually not a review and just a newsletter, i think his reflection on how trump and wokeness and meanness and niceness have broken peoples' brains is really useful. i also think that it's not just him: plenty of critics and just, like, people on letterboxd are saying "this is fine i guess" with this really rare kind of cold distance because they don't understand how to like wicked but don't want to rain on the parade. when the parade is dork adult men liking deadpool it's easy to rain on it, but when the party is likeminded people you feel like you're punching down at if you ask them what they're doing, it feels like you're doing a political transgression. this is a new and scary mechanic of liberal individualism which, even if he falls in line with it, ehrlich explains pretty well.
To play devil's advocate, who cares? Genuinely, if he writes a real review it can only hurt his career because this film is intersectional with girl power bullshit and has a bald sextuply pierced black woman (?) as the lead so any criticism is NOT OKAY and MISSES THE POINT. The people who not just want but NEED to like this and other similar media will do so no matter how terrible it actually is and most non-gay non-15-to-45 women will have zero awareness of it even existing
He should have a spine.
Just stumbled on your newsletter and read a couple before this. I love how passionate you are! I haven’t seen wicked and I am not a movie person so I don’t keep up with any of the craze around them but everything I have heard about wicked has been positive so it’s cool to read a unique take. I also just read your Paul mescal piece before this and am curious if you watched Ariana grande & Paul mescals conversation via variety YouTube that came out a couple weeks ago 😆 I saw a clip of it and they looked like they were in love which I thought was interesting because they are both in relationships that have caused quite a stir in certain parts of tik tok. Would love your thoughts if you did see it!
thank you! i did see it…. i think it solidified my impression that mescal is way too nervous. he could barely look at her!!
Wonderful article!
thank you!
Thank you for leaving comments open. I just discovered you via the Max Reed comments section.
great!! welcome
Awesome read. Makes me want to see the film in a way that is as equally problematic as the concept of “let them like it, I guess- it’s fine”, in my case the “things are getting bad out there dammit so much for getting a BFA” kind of grudge-watch. I have read more about this movie than any other movie in the last few years- save for Tar and the Leyla Seydoux film “the beast.”
I think most blockbusters are dumb. I stopped reading everyone’s think pieces. I went to the theater on an edible and I had a magical time. I listened to the soundtrack while cleaning and teared up over the voices and some nostalgia. It’s actually not the end of humanity to “just line things”. This isn’t the Minecraft Movie.
this was great
thank you!
What did I just attempt to read?
my post on substack.com 🙏
I hated the trailer (and the length) and did not plan to watch the movie but now I feel compelled to watch it and love it.
ok best of luck on your journey
It’s truly not worth reading think pieces on. Go in, make your own opinion. It’s not that deep. If you like musicals you’ll probably have a great time.
I don't mind reading a piece that's critical of a movie or show that I enjoyed. But this essay didn't even engage with the movie. Merely waved a hand calling it bad and said it was based on a preschool-level show, and then proceeded to maunder over tangentially related pop culture themes. I wanted to know why Wicked made her crazy. I have no idea.
Does all art have to be Good? I haven’t seen wicked and am neither here nor there on Ariana but does wicked or Moana have to be fine cinema for people to enjoy it? I hate the “let people enjoy things” sentiment, but in this case idk? We don’t have to subject things that are the media equivalent of a pop tart to the same criticism as a Michelin starred restaurant
Too long. Lacks focus. Very self-indulgent. Your review, that is.