Tarik Mohammed El-sayed
Over the past few years, there has been a steep rise in ‘performative’ consumers, whether that be in fashion, taste in music or in movies. This title has been developed into the stereotypical matcha-loving Clairo listeners who praise American Psycho. But, regarding films, why is it that certain people put on a persona of a critical cinephile online? Do their top 4 on Letterboxd actually encapsulate their love for cinema? Or are they selectively chosen to present to others their niche taste and to match their desired aesthetic?
Film critics have been around since Roundhay Garden Scene in 1888, but recently, when speaking to people in real life or looking online, there has been a major increase in people taking an interest in movie reviews. This can be chalked up to the popularity of Letterboxd and the intense need for people to share all of their thoughts online. Letterboxd in particular grew in popularity in recent years, reaching 17 million users (as of 2024), which is a major increase from the user population of 1.8 million in March 2020. An explanation for such an increase is likely that people are spending their time quarantining, logging movies and killing time, as many of us did in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Nevertheless, Letterboxd provides a social platform for cinephiles to leave reviews and show others what they have been watching.
The other day, I was speaking to my friend, Dave, about how ‘performative’ certain people are online. Though it must be recognised that the rise of platforms like Letterboxd can be credited for getting many people into films that they would not otherwise watch, the state of the platform is now used by users to perfectly organise their accounts with films to essentially ‘show off’ to others. Users, rather than use the platform for the purpose of sharing their opinions with others, spend time orchestrating their perfect top 4 movies that strike a balance of old foreign films, niche horrors, romances, and, of course, Fight Club.
With these ‘performative’ cinephiles, there comes a question as to whether they truly enjoy the movies they’re watching or if they are simply following the crowd of others that deem certain movies like The Dark Knight (severely overrated in my opinion) to be peak cinema. Have these users gone so far in putting on an act that they lose the ability to truly enjoy films? Has social media become such an overbearing presence in people’s lives that individuals will force themselves to vocalise their love for films they find boring, whilst criticising a movie they secretly found to be a fun watch purely for others’ validation? A major issue today is that social media trained and conditioned people to display an untrue representation of themselves for external validation. People online are too afraid of being called a ‘normie’ for liking a superhero film to the point they become inauthentic and disingenuous to their own feelings. This problem with social media is now seeping into the realm of films, adding to another thing people need to orchestrate about themselves to create their desired ‘appearance’ to others.
It can’t go without saying that the rising popularity of ‘film critics’ and greater vocalisation of people’s opinions on films has had a positive influence on cinema and films as a whole. As people became more outspoken on their opinions on films, there has been a noticeable change in what studios have been releasing. Noticeably, Marvel has been subject to changes in response to individual reviews and outspokenness regarding the dipping quality in their films, having few releases and being more selective on what projects should be produced.
As engagement with social media increased, involvement in films and reviewing, people have become more selective about what they should spend their time watching. More importantly, people have become more selective with their money due to the ever-increasing cinema costs. Film critics, therefore, are somewhat responsible for keeping studios in line to release quality movies rather than mind-numbing ‘slop’. Though the rise in cinephile culture is partially responsible for a decreasing expression of self in movie reviews, the outspoken nature of this culture has done some good when it comes to the media that is being released.
I’d say that this rise of the ‘performative critic’ has somewhat taken away from the enjoyment of films. People now watch with the intent to log and review rather than appreciate the medium as is, cheapening their viewing experience from its real potential. Despite everything, what I find most interesting is how I still have yet to meet anyone who has watched The Godfather, with it being one of the best films ever made.
Tarik Mohammed El-sayed
Featured image courtesy of Noom Peerapong via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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