It seems that new waves of
think pieces arrive every
second month, inevitably in
response to some surprise at
the box office or at the award
ceremonies. These articles
tend to be written by film
critics themselves, and can
occasionally feel like laments
of those trapped in turmoil.
Economic factors like the
Great Recession played a
part in this sense of unease.
In the United States, the
National Society of Film
Critics reported in 2000 that
30 of its 50 members
working full-time at dailies
and alternative weeklies; by
2016, that number had
dropped to 10 in 54. The
United States Bureau of
Labour Statistics files “critics”
as “journalists”, and notes
that the number of
journalists working in print
had declined by 60%
between 1990 and 2016.
Anecdotal evidence suggests
that critics are among the
first employees to be let go
during an economic crunch.
ANECDOTAL
EVIDENCE
SUGGESTS THAT
CRITICS ARE
AMONG THE FIRST
EMPLOYEES TO BE
LET GO DURING AN
ECONOMIC
CRUNCH.
internet was providing new opportunities and
possibilities. The internet served to democratise
criticism, removing any editorial gatekeeper and
providing a forum on which anybody could write
about anything, without any barriers to entry or
any restrictions on content.
During the late nineties, the internet gave rise to a
new generation of film writers and commentators,
At the same time that
often skewing more towards geekier sensibilities.
established print media
Harry Knowles launched Ain’t It Cool News in 1996,
criticism was in decline, the after spending two years cultivating an internet
persona on newsgroups and
forums. In 1997, Chris Gore
converted Film Threat from a
photocopied zine into an
online website. In 1999, Nick
Nunziata founded Cinematic
Happenings Under
Development.
In many ways, these twin
factors – the decline of the
print-media film critic and
the ascent of the internet fan
critic – contributed to a
seismic shift in film
discourse, in the way that
people talk about and
discuss films. Film criticism
became less formal, and
more esoteric. These shifts
were not inherently good or
inherently bad of themselves,
instead representing a
change in how criticism was
framed and delivered.
Internet film critics, such as
those at Red Letter Media or
on That Guy with the Glasses
would cultivate their own
personas that they would
insert into their reviews. Mike
Symonds would write entire
reviews in the persona of
“Film Critic Hulk”, in the
dialect known as “Hulkspeak”
patterned after the giant