The pointy-headed film critic isn’t new but audience tastes have changed The Irish Times

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Were talking about dumb movie critics w*ke inflating the value of obscure arthouse shit while spilling Gypsy ash on their pretentious black polo necks. Or maybe they’re now spilling kale smoothies on their Urban Outfitter cardigans. Either way, we’ve always complained about it, but the conversation took a special turn this year. You could blame my colleagues at the New York Times. It makes more sense to blame people who don’t understand what a critic is for.

This newspaper’s annual top 10 by Manhola Dargis and AO Scott sparked louder-than-usual rebukes when it was published about a week ago. Space prohibits a full roster, but Dargis led his charts with Jerzy Skolimowskis EO and followed with cerebral releases such as Jafar Panahis No Bears and Audrey Diwans Happening. Scott preferred Jordan Peeles Nope, but also had time for Xavier Giannolis Lost Illusions and Peter Stricklands Flux Gourmet.

Geniuses rose almost immediately to brag that they hadn’t heard of anything on the list. The most common specific complaint was that no reviewer included Top Gun: Maverick. Almost as many objected to the non-appearance of Everything Everywhere All At Once. But general outrage has gathered around the arrogance of critics in selecting films that the Staten Island omnibus man may not be aware of.

Events came to a head when (come on, guess who!) Elon Musk popped up on his newly acquired microblogging site to declare: Top Gun Maverick was awesome! NYTimes completely woke up.” Jason Calacanis, internet entrepreneur and startup investor, then convened a podcast to question whether AO Scott was hanging out with his top 10 list.

We hardly know where to start. There was great cheer in the Irish Times Towers as Tara Brady and I remembered that we hadn’t found a place for either Top Gun: Maverick or Everything Everywhere All At Once in our top 50. (We did, however, put Prey, a kinetic prequel to the Schwarzenegger flick Predator, in the top 5. For the populist front to land their pitchforks.) In less solipsistic form, one can expect a typically sensible response from the lovable Guillermo del Toro. The top ten are not all contests, wrote the director of Pans Labyrinth. They declare (at best) cinematic versions that express themselves… and they don’t close one door, they open ten.

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Del Toro says it well. You have to grudgingly admit that the world might be better off without movie critics than without heart surgeons, nuclear physicists, or people who make movies. But if these people have value, it’s for locating work that readers might not otherwise encounter. Top Gun: Maverick will be fine without the backing of pointy-headed boffins (although, in this case, reviews were strong). Reviews still matter, however, when it comes to smaller films like Charlotte Wellss Aftersun. This touching drama, starring Paul Mescal as a troubled Scotsman on holiday with his daughter in the 1990s, arrived at Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival with little buzz. Critics turned it into a smash hit and it has since performed around the world to great acclaim. It doesn’t mean he recorded with everyone. Aftersun was one of the ridiculed films on the AO Scotts list. Maybe one or two of those having fun will take a look. We can hope.

This has almost always been the situation. While talking Scott out of including Maverick, Calacanis nodded to an American critic legend. Where have you gone Roger Ebert, our nation turns its lonely eyes on you, he joked, in imitation of Paul Simon. But a quick check confirms that Ebert, equally arthouse and populist, gave the original Top Gun an unimpressed two and a half stars in 1986. His top 10 for the Sight and Sound poll in 2012 included Werner films. Herzog, Yasujir Ozu and Federico Fellini. The most admired critics have always looked beyond the mainstream.

Yet something has changed and it has nothing to do with the supposed rise of the supposed revival. In earlier times, many of the most acclaimed films were also box office hits. Audiences stopped turning to the contemporary equivalents of All The Presidents Men and Taxi Driver. The studios stopped making them. If we go back to 1972, we find that imagine this, now one of the New York Times top 10 movies has become the biggest hit of all time. That movie was The Godfather. Alongside the gangster flick we find… well, Luis Buuels The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Ingmar Bergmans Cries and Whispers and Eric Rohmers Chloe in the Afternoon. So things haven’t changed that much. The black polo collar has always had the wind in its sails. Very well too.

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