Changing the Dialogue: How Digital Creators Are Reshaping Film Criticism

Hazel Hayes

When most people look at YouTube, they focus on creator-audience relationship. And that’s wonderful — it’s been a lovely thing for me to foster a community on there of people who are interested in what I make.

But, also — and I think probably more importantly for me — it’s been just an incredible way to meet like-minded, very skilled, and talented people who I’ve learned from over the years. Before I was ever making my own films, I was lucky enough to be on their sets. To act alongside them. To watch them direct. To help consult on the script. It’s been incredibly important for me to meet all those people online. I think, genuinely, I would not be where I am today if I hadn’t met the community that I’ve met on YouTube, and learned all that I have from them, and been afforded the opportunity to work with them.

Chris Stuckmann

Back in the day, you had to really work hard to become a viable voice that people trusted and heard. Nowadays, if you come up with a clever thing to say and enough people think it’s funny or enough people agree, you can be on the news tomorrow because of social media.

I think people build trust with film critics or filmmakers or writers or journalists that they have had a positive experience with. But very rarely do I think, “Well, this person said this, so I automatically believe it.” And that’s not because I don’t value someone’s opinion — I just think that everyone should experience some form of art and make up their mind for themselves. Even with my own reviews, I’ve told my viewers sometimes to just go see the film. My grade means nothing. If you wanted to see it, just go see it and make up your own opinion. I just like the fact that so many people now have the access to express themselves.

CinemaSins

JEREMY SCOTT: It is all about audience. What the internet, social media, and YouTube have done to the world of movie criticism — just like they did with music and bands 10 years ago — is give regular people a way to connect with an audience. Whether it is your personality, your editing style, or your opinions about films, YouTube movie reviewers like Jeremy Jahns and Chris Stuckmann have done it by building trust. Their viewers trust these guys’ opinions about a movie more than some review that they would read in a newspaper. If you can find the audience, then they will care about what you have to say.

Lindsay Ellis

When I first started, there were very, very firm lines in the sand between the “goofy film hobbyists” and the professionals who write for professional publications. But now, when you are good at what you do, those lines are a lot blurrier.

I also think that YouTube has finally figured out how to bring these weighty academic concepts from film theory into something that is more accessible. I have been doing it for awhile, but whenever I started doing stuff that was more directly about theory, I got requests for more of that. I was awfully shocked at how people who weren’t in the academic life were really interested in these academic concepts as long as they were presented in a way that was accessible and didn’t feel like homework.

Black Men
Can’t Jump

JAMES III: Social media has helped to change who’s talking about things. A great benefit of the internet is that we can have people with varying points of views come out and start more conversation.

JERAH MILLIGAN: Personally, I hate social media. It’s not even the fact that we have benefited a lot from it; it’s that people seem to only be on social media to show off for someone else. And I don’t know if that helps the cause in any way, shape, or form, or we’re just saying things to hear ourselves lead a conversation from behind a computer screen.

JONATHAN BRAYLOCK: In true Black Men Can’t Jump fashion, I’m just going to take a middle position here — which is the correct one. What you’re both saying is true. Twitter, the same platform that gave us #OscarsSoWhite, also gave us the Star Wars boycott because the movie had a Black stormtrooper. So while social media gives power to the voiceless, it also gives power to the people who already had significantly strong voices in positions of power. It’s definitely muddled, but it allows for conversations to exist somewhat organically. I think, now, it’s just a matter of how to control that.

History Buffs

I think where the internet, as it stands now — especially YouTube — is a new frontier. The possibilities are exciting and endless, but also uncertain. YouTube has given me the opportunity to make something like this into a career because there’s no middleman.

If I wanted to be a film critic the old-fashioned way, I’d have to convince a whole bunch of other people with money that I have what it takes. Whereas with YouTube, you just make a video, put it up, and reach straight to an audience, and then they determine whether you’re successful or not. It’s a very exciting time.

Alachia Queen

It can be hard to have an open dialogue about social issues online. But I’ve found that you can use movies and the platform of YouTube to talk about how we want to deal with more serious issues, like the social implications of pop culture.

For example, when I reviewed Snowden, I talked about the dangers of Big Brother, and whether or not patriotism trumps freedom. If you were to just openly have that conversation, you could end up polarizing a lot of people on both the left and right. But if you use movies to conduct a conversation, it’s like a gateway. What I started to notice was that the more in depth I would get in my videos, the comments would be paragraphs upon paragraphs of people analyzing certain philosophies or theories. It’s really fascinating, because once people realize that others are genuinely interested in the same topics, they’re more than willing to share.

The Worst Idea
of All Time

GUY MONTGOMERY: I think everyone was always a critic, but now, everyone has got more avenues to communicate their opinion about what they like and don’t like. There’s no quality control on that, and I don’t know that it’s good or bad. It’s what’s always been happening; now, it’s just that if you want to engage with that there’s more opportunity to do it. And if you don’t, you don’t have to.