Two years after he elegantly deconstructed the declining standards of modern moviegoing in The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex, Mark Kermode turns his gaze inward on his own profession in his third book Hatchet Job.
Digital Spy sat down with Kermode last week to discuss the shifting sands of film criticism in the digital age, how on-demand culture is making movie fans lazy, and his controversial love for sparkly vampires.
digitalspy How subjective should a review be? It's a difficult balance to strike, particularly if you're reviewing a film that does nothing for you personally but you can recognise is serving an audience."Well, I think firstly you have to be honest. You cannot lie about whether you liked a movie or not. I think there are a lot of people who think I'm just lying about Twilight. They think I'm just saying it because it makes me feel cool - believe me, if you think that liking Twilight is cool, you really need to get out more! Most of the teenagers have moved on, OK, if anything it makes me look like an old fart. So you can't lie about it.
"You have to operate by saying, 'OK, I can see what it's trying to do', and you can appreciate that it's trying to do it even if you personally hated it, but you then have to say, 'I personally hated it'. I can't lie about comedies, for example. I've got a tin ear for comedy, I don't find frat boy comedies funny, I just don't. I don't find grown men pretending to be teenagers, talking about their scrotal sacks funny. I just don't, I'm sorry, I'm sure there are movies in which it is done in a humorous way, but they were a long time ago and I don't remember them. Just because you sit in a room with a bunch of people who might find it funny, I'd be lying if I said I did."
So you really do love Twilight, then?
"Yes! Why would I lie? [Off DS's disappointed expression] But exactly! In a way, you're proving my point - that's what I have to lose! What I have to lose is your respect, so why would I lie? And all I'm telling you is, it's true! I genuinely do! I've watched all of them more than once, and even in the moments of Bella sitting on a chair moping for a year while the seasons change around her, and even in the most ludicrous 'We just had a battle! No we didn't, it was a dream! Really?' Even in those moments.
"But I always thought the whole thing with the last Twilight was that they really should have given it to David Cronenberg, because particularly Part 1, the whole vampire pregnancy narrative is so mad. It's so bizarre.
And there are huge narrative issues that you never manage to solve, you really... Renesmee? Really? You could just see Bill Condon thinking '...OK. Right. What are we gonna do? How are we gonna climb this particular mountain?'"
You write at length about the negative impact of test audiences on film. But if you had the power of a test audience, to change the ending of any film in the world to make it better, is there a film you'd want to change?
"No, because it would never be the case. For my money, it's never the case. I know loads of filmmakers who will tell you that test screening films helped them, and I know loads of filmmakers who will tell you that the process was useful, and they have every right to do that. Let's say there are great filmmakers who rely very heavily on the test screening process and find it to be a creative and wonderful thing. Good for them. For every one of them, there are a bunch of other people who have suffered at the hand of test screenings, and my bottom line is this: you are a filmmaker, or a film watcher, and they are not the same thing.
"I'm a film critic, I couldn't dream of telling anybody how to make a film better. All I can do is, you show me the film and I'll tell you whether I like it or not. You start asking me to change it, I'll make it worse, because I'm not a filmmaker. The worst film I have ever seen, I couldn't have made. People often say 'Oh, you slagged my film off, could you do any better?' No! No, of course not. But I'm not a filmmaker, it's not my job, you know. I mean equally, I could say, 'You want to go and review the week's releases? Off you go! Come back when you've done 13 films.'" Read more at source.
ICYMI Move over, Luke Skywalker… I'm a Twilight man
emmdib via Gossipgyal
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