Why did I name this site Purely Subjective Movie Reviews?
(Before I get started I have a feeling this might turn into a bit of a rant so disclaimer: I have no formal film education so I am speaking entirely on my (lack of) experience. With that, I shall continue)
Like many aspiring film enthusiasts out there, I often go on social media to watch movie reviews or read discussion threads. I was disappointed to find however, that most discourse surrounding movies is centered around a set of narrow parameters (think internal consistency of narrative or western literature style character arcs) that STEM types on the internet parrot as "objective" analysis. These people then use these criteria to judge everything that they watch and apply labels like "objectively good" or "objectively bad". (It is common that most of these people also pay no consideration to form and focus on plot at the expense of everything else)
I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as objective judgement when it comes to art, with the closest thing being a consensus. I believe that objective judgement (at least by humans) is an impossibility because the artist and the audience bring with them their own baggage which makes it impossible to determine any universal barometer for quality or lack thereof. Unfortunately, there are several notable influencers online that have somehow convinced themselves and their fans that objective judgement is possible, and they and their rabid mob of fans attack anyone who claims otherwise.
This reached a breaking point for me when I saw a fan of these influencers say and I quote "Why should anyone listen to or read "subjective" reviews? If it is all subjective and personal, then the experience you had with that media has no bearing on my potential experience with it. Meaning your whole review is worthless to me." This to me is insane and completely misses the point of what a review should do. Do people not realise how often critics disagree with each other on the same movie? The job of a reviewer is not to make a "objective" review, rather its is the audience's duty to find a reviewer they agree with most of the time and take their advice. I also saw another fan who accused people like me of being unable to handle addressing the flaws of a movie we like, and use subjectivity as a shield. Personally, me liking a movie doesn't mean that I like it unreservedly, and I have never used subjectivity as a shield to deflect criticism; in fact the reason why subjectivity is so appealing is because it creates opportunity for discussion. If art could be judged objectively, there would be no need for any debate! In fact, I believe most people who claim objectivity usually seek validation for their opinions and avoid confronting the emotions that art has the ability to generate within all of us. As such,the name for my blog serves to announce my intention of only making subjective reviews as a clear warning for those who are looking for "objective" reviews. If you are one of those I am referring to and you have read to this point (I will be very surprised if you have), this is not the place for you. Continue on your fruitless search
(On a more serious note I do know that this subject has been the subject of debate for thousands of years with many different schools of thought; what I want to get across is that people misapply the word objective when they really mean something else.)
-----Rant over-----
Now that I have gotten that out of my system, I will finally talk about what will be written on this blog. Don't count on regular reviews for new releases; I will be writing about whatever the hell I want and whenever the mood strikes. (that said I have a quota to meet this month) I'm working under the assumption that my readers (if there any) are like me and read about whatever interests them at the moment. Edit: Coming back after 2 months, I realise that what I write is less of a review and more of what I find interesting about the movie, so the name for this site was perhaps premature. I would also add that I will only write about feature length films (defined as being over 40mins), and more traditional arthouse stuff, so it is very unlikely that I will do true experimental films. (like the work of Michael Snow, Yoji Kuri etc)
Having lambasted internet STEM types just now, I must confess that I have been among their ranks for longer than my interest in movies and thus I retain a love of rating systems. I shall be employing a scale of one to five stars (★ to ★★★★★) purely for my own satisfaction, with 3 stars (★★★) and above being a definite recommendation. I don't do half stars cause they don't exist in real life. With all that in mind, welcome to Purely Subjective Movie Reviews
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