I do appreciate the circular irony. Critics write negative reviews. Artist slags off critics. Critics respond by slagging off artist for slagging off critics. Artists slag off critics for slagging off \u2026<\/p>\n
You can see where this is going. The moral for creators is that, unless you have a factual error to correct, it is best not to go public with any objections to poor reviews. By all means wave arms at local critics if you meet them at a social event. No sacred bubble protects them (us?) from disagreement. But mouthing off on a more visible forum invariably leads to the sort of unhelpful cycle parodied above.<\/p>\n
Anyway, about Taika Waititi\u2019s Klara and the Sun. Following a tranche of dreadful reviews<\/a> for that Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation, the New Zealand director launched a tirade on Instagram this week. \u201cThis Halloween, let\u2019s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn\u2019t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics,\u201d he wrote. Ouch, I guess.<\/p>\n Oddly, he also had words to say about an earlier Waititi release that got largely positive reviews (and won an Oscar). \u201cThe same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit<\/a>. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.\u201d <\/p>\n The image accompanying the post notes that Klara and the Sun, which stars Jenna Ortega as a manic pixie cyborg, secured a 74 per cent audience score<\/a> on Rotten Tomatoes. Sadly, its critic score on the same review aggregator site was just 26 per cent. <\/p>\n \u201cThe audience will wonder if the sentimental pummeling will ever end,\u201d Tim Grierson wrote<\/a> in the Los Angeles Times. \u201cIt\u2019s a hopeless film, slippery and mendacious, full of gross Hallmark sentiment,\u201d Kevin Maher noted<\/a> in The Times of London. \u201cUnbearably mannered,\u201d Peter Bradshaw added<\/a> in The Guardian. <\/p>\n All this comes as Waititi celebrates the 10th anniversary of his delightful<\/a> Hunt for the Wilderpeople. \u201cArguably the masterpiece of its writer-director,\u201d Bradshaw wrote back then. \u201cBringing his distinctive irony, comedy and quirk, but wisely lets the story and performances do the real work.\u201d <\/p>\n Were the critics who secured Wilderpeople 97 per cent on the Tomatometer then \u201cout of touch\u201d? Had they become so when, a year later, Waititi\u2019s Thor Ragnarok<\/a> clocked up 93 per cent on its way to becoming the Marvel film that even Marvel dissenters admire? Or did the critics\u2019 obsolescence only set in when they turned against Klara and the Sun?<\/p>\n