No one likes being told that their work sucks. Unfortunately, though, when it comes to filmmaking, criticism cannot be avoided. You could make one of the best movies of all time or a truly great TV series, and there’d still be someone who didn’t like it.
That’s just the nature of art, you can’t please everyone all of the time, and if you could, you probably wouldn’t want to. The best artists are those who take (constructive) criticism and use it to improve their craft. One such filmmaker appears to be Daniel Kwan, one half of the team who brought us the wonderfully weird science fiction movie Everything Everywhere All At Once.
In a recent Twitter thread, Kwan defended critics who hadn’t included his film on their best of 2022 list from passionate fans of his time travel movie, giving them a lesson in the value of a robust critical community.
“I know the end of year discourse on film Twitter can be toxic [as fuck] with all of the “Best of” lists that come out, but [attacking critics] really needs to stop, ” he wrote. “…These end of year lists are a great opportunity for people to discover films they haven’t heard of (our film doesn’t need that), to help smaller films make money (don’t need that), and to celebrate the hard work of filmmakers we admire (don’t need anymore celebrating).”
“A healthy industry requires a diverse range of films finding their own versions of success,” he continued. “Every list that deviates from the norm should be celebrated (unless they’re shilling problematic shit hah).”
You can read the whole thread here, and we recommend you do. It’s a great breakdown of why critical homogeny can be a bad thing. Ultimately it serves to explain why you shouldn’t get bent out of shape when someone like Martin Scorsese says he’s not a fan of Marvel movies.
It means very little in the grand scheme of cinema, and your opinion is just as valid as any of the opinions you read online. Anyway, if you want our opinion on stuff, we’ve got a list of the best action movies ever made.