links: when breaking up is the right thing to do
A film critic breaks up with film criticism, accountability > entertainment, and a delightful corner of film social media.
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You probably missed it, but last week film journalist Britt Hayes announced that she is leaving film criticism for good. You probably don’t know Britt Hayes by name, and that’s somewhat the point in why she’s leaving, though far from the reason. Britt is leaving because throughout her career she’s been overlooked and overworked by her editors at ScreenCrush for nearly a decade.
Britt’s Patreon break-up post with the industry of film criticism is truly heartbreaking. Her story covers the gambit of the layoffs and shrinking budgets, the white men who are less qualified and hardworking than her getting the promotions and raises she deserves, the sexual assault from male film writers and the failure of editors and institutions to hold their hurtful, abusive employees accountable. She describes the income and job insecurity women and minorities face in trying to break into film criticism as “The Fear” and her decision to finally quit the industry in terms of “leaving a toxic relationship.”
AV Club senior writer Katie Rife tweeted in support, acknowledging that feeling exhausted and demoralized comes with being a woman in the industry.
I hadn’t heard of Britt Hayes until I had read her post, but I wish I had. Britt’s view of films seems more akin to mine, more so than a lot of the film critics that I typically read. And her voice is sharp. Here she is describing A Star is Born as an exhausting, antiquated narrative in 2018. Here she is tweeting “Christopher Nolan is a virgin who can’t drive.”
I often find myself frustrated by film conversations and fandom, especially those driven by writers who largely have the same outlook and criteria for what makes for good cinema. It’s often shallow and overly nostalgic and defensive. It’s why diverse voices are so important to pushing film conversations into new territories, prompting the industry to hire more diverse filmmakers to tell more diverse stories for more diverse audiences. When we kept elevating the same white men, some of them undeserving and incapable of meeting the expectations of the positions they are given, to the conversation while suppressing minority voices the culture and industry of film criticism will continue to crumble as the most diverse and talented writers get sick of basically working for free while also being treated like shit.
Read Britt’s post and consider supporting her Patreon.
Talking about Justice League always makes me feel like an asshole, but not as big of an asshole as Joss Whedon, I would like to think.
Unfortunately for my friends who talk film with me, I’m no fan of the DC Extended Universe films. I”ll admit I haven’t given them much of a chance, but the tone set from the thick maximalism and thin plots and characters of Zack Snyder’s early DC films has always turned me off. It feels like the DCEU filmmakers are always taking the most superficial aspects of comic books and stretching them until it can fit a movie screen so that people who don’t read comic books can watch and say “ahh, yes, this feels like what I imagine reading a comic book would be like.”
Andy and a couple of people who read this newsletter will be the first to tell you that not all of these films are bad, in fact, some of them are good. And I know they are right and I’m glad that these films bring them joy, but I can’t help but root against these movies. I hate how much oxygen they suck up and how much space they take away from everything else. It’s frustrating and dumb how much time is wasted trying to explain why Justice League sucks, and even more time is wasted breathlessly explaining how maybe it doesn’t actually suck? Now, HBO Max is spending $20-$30 million more to release the infamous “Snyder cut” to essentially prove that it doesn’t actually suck, i promise. I hate it here.
TL;DR: I have a giant stick up my ass about Justice League and I’m not a fun hang when it comes to talking about it.
So when Andy sent me this news-making tweet from Ray Fisher, the actor who plays Victor Stone (Cyborg) in Justice League, my first thought was “what now with this fucking movie?”
But aside from the said giant stick up my ass about all things Justice League, it is worth discussing how Fisher’s speaking out allows more room for us to question why it is that we allow bad behavior like this to continue. Directors and actors treating people like garbage is the stuff of legend. It’s such a cliché that on-set meltdowns are mocked and joked about. But Fisher’s tweet does challenge us to ask what exactly is ok about an industry and culture that values entertainment and profit far more than merit, equity, and accountability?
Trying to participate in these comic book film conversations always makes me a bit nauseous. To me, parts of comic book and film fandom are so incredibly toxic and misogynistic and the film and comic book industries allow the powerful to be predatory towards women and exploitative of minority artists that it makes liking these films feel like a transgression on top of thinking they aren’t well-made and have nothing to say.
I have to acknowledge that railing against comic book films feels like you’re personally insulting the tastes, nostalgia, and values of friends, which who enjoy and look forward to these films. It’s a shitty feeling, but I think it’s important to figure out how to have these conversations and to think about what it is that we’re attacking and what it is we’re defending when we fight over these films.
“What if all films were set in the same universe?”
I’m going to jump off my high horse for a second to direct your attention to this little-followed Instagram handle called scene.differently that delightfully juxtaposes stills across cinema. Some of these are really fun~
