Years ago, when I was a film critic, I was invited to go out for coffee by a man who had just been hired by the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. I can’t remember the purpose of the meeting. Remembering when he talked about this site’s “Tomatometer” rating instantly shatters all my elitist hard-hitting insight into his data, but I’d rather not dig my own grave. Summoned to witness.
This actually worked for me. I was already demoralized by the entire enterprise. I have always seen the critic role as a conduit. Someone who has an aesthetic experience and reports what it was like. I didn’t mind telling others what to see and what to avoid, imposing a supremacy of tastes and interests that I didn’t believe in. Like Rotten Tomatoes, it’s all based on consensus. and seemed to promote a dichotomy between “good” and “bad”. I held my finger up to the wind and it was depressing. The consensus is a snowball with a hard mineral center, and few people want to run down the slope and be on the wrong side.
Sometimes consensus is formed around a film’s story even before people have seen the film itself. A few weeks ago, I went to a screening of “Don’t Worry Darling,” which I had been looking forward to since I saw the poster.I’m sure you’ve been vaguely aware of the noise emanating from movie press rollouts, but it’s now infamous spit video I just realized how much flak the movie captures. In this video, Harry Styles, one of the movie’s stars, approaches the Venice Film Festival auditorium, politely buttons his jacket, and leans forward — according to gleeful online speculation. and—allegedly hitting Roogie on another star in the film. , Chris Pine, who stops clapping and follows the path with his eyes from Styles’ lips to his own knees. No actual saliva was discernible in the video, and there was no motive. But I didn’t need any. The joke begged for mercy as these few frames of video were scrutinized, analyzed, slowed down, zoomed, dissected, and often compared to the Zapruder movies.
But for me, the Cold War artifact it reminded me of was Kremlinology. This is the practice of scrutinizing all available information to identify hidden motives and power struggles of distant and unknown persons. The events that drew attention to “Don’t Worry Darling” weren’t great. alleged feud The pay gap between the leads, between director Olivia Wilde and lead actress Florence Pugh, may have something to do with it. Actor Shia LaBeouf was replaced by Styles under controversial circumstances. LaBeouf’s leaked message from Wilde regarding Pugh.presence of the wild along with supporting documents From ex-fiancée Jason Sudeikis on stage at CinemaCon. And best of all, Wilde became romantically involved with Styles, who is ten years younger than her. It was unclear where the theoretical animosity between Styles and Pine was supposed to fit. But by then people were willing to believe anything — even unsubstantiated rumors equivalent to flying sharks — in a workplace so full that one star would spit on another in public. On camera, for no apparent reason, as long as it continues to build a narrative of the women who fostered the environment.
More on “Don’t Worry Darling”
In this much-talked-about feminist gothic, Florence Pugh plays a seemingly happy housewife whose world begins to crumble.
- review: “If Pugh’s acting doesn’t fit on the glorious, satirical surface, it’s because she has nowhere to go,” our reviewer wrote of the film.
- publicity crisis: It was one of Hollywood’s hottest projects. However, a series of promotional blunders that hinted at alleged feuds and behind-the-scenes drama have raised questions about the film’s viability and its director, Olivia Wilde.
- Bad reputation: Amid all the rumors and negative press, the public voice part seems strangely invested in witnessing Wilde’s return. Will that affect the film’s ratings?
“Darling, don’t worry” just the latest example of film mod, Or “Cursed Movie”. It is a term coined for Jean Cocteau’s Festival du He film Maudie in 1949, for works unfairly neglected or deemed too exorbitant to deserve serious attention, Namely, J. will write later at the Village Voice. Women-made films aren’t the only ones who find themselves in this defensive position. (Her experience with Elaine May in “Ishtar” was such that Hoberman classified her as a cineast Moditshe would not direct again for decades. As much buzz swirled around “Don’t Worry Darling,” its qualities, especially Wilde’s abilities, were questioned.
A tomatometer comes out and the party is over.
The film has a century-old lore about films plagued by budget overruns, personality clashes, and on-set incidents. Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski wanted to kill each other while filming ‘Fitzcarraldo’. Bogdanovic left his true genius wife after having an affair with a young Sybil his Shepard on ‘The Last Picture Show’. These productions were plagued by bad press and rumors, but never faced the wrath of Stan Twitter. These days, fans spread rumors and memes and are picked up by media outlets who disguise their desires with speculation about box office prospects and reviews.so tomato meter comes outand the party is over.
But of course, the idea that this consensus opinion comes from a pure and objective place is disingenuous. The press always colors reviews — and now some of the public voices seem strangely invested in Wilde’s resurrection. Considering the statement real-world inspiration for moviesit is not hard to imagine the online reaction, including the kind of organized backlash that has greeted other hated films. I have written In 2012, The New Yorker stated: Mind that. Male film critics outnumbered female film critics by her two-to-one ratio, and tended to have “slightly higher average quantitative ratings for films with male protagonists.” According to research Conducted by Martha Lausen of the Center for Women in Television and Film Studies at San Diego State University.
It’s strange that this could be the fate of “Don’t Worry Darling.” In a film about men trapping women in regressive, suffocating places, dissent means denial and exile. The movie’s big plot developments must be hard for Wilde to resist talking about. Given how much the story surrounding the film echoes their point, it’s hard to tell without spoilers. My girlfriend’s 14 year old daughter came to the screening with me and was not disturbed by outside luggage. As her credits started rolling, she announced, “It was the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life.” Seeing Wilde’s name in her cast, she asked which character her director had played, and when I told her she was impressed. She said, “I want to be her. I want to do what she does.” And then I started to worry.
Source Photo: Vittorio Zunino Cerotto/Getty Images; screen grab from Warner Bros.
Carina Chocano is the author of the essay collection You Play the Girl and a magazine contributor. She is a frequent contributor to her Screenland column in the magazine.