There seems to be a major issue right now in regards to how the public understands and views criticism, both in its intent and in how it reflects on the critic's opinion. It's something that's been bothering me for a little while now, and an exchange I had last year brought it back to my attention, highlighting just how much of a stigma there seems to be towards criticism in the general consciousness. Thus, I thought it was time I finally put it down in writing.
So back in September of last year, my dad and I were driving home from a professional production of Little Shop of Horrors, probably my favourite musical and one that I'm very familiar with, especially since I'd been involved in an amateur production of it earlier that year (not to mention I've seen the film and listened to the soundtrack hundreds of times). My dad asked me what I thought of the production, and I mentioned that I was a bit disappointed with some of the characterisations, which I felt didn't fully capture who each character really was and what they were supposed to represent in regards to the story and its themes.
Annoyed, my dad asked me why I always had to critically dissect everything I watched and couldn't just simply enjoy things like other people do. It took me off guard at the time (not least of all because I hadn't even said at this point whether I'd enjoyed the production, which I did for the record), even though my parents have made exclamations of this nature in the past. I didn't really know what to say, so I left the silence to awkwardly hang instead, but now I want to put this irritating question to bed once and for all.
Criticism is not a negative practice. No media or work of art is ever truly objectively perfect; in fact, the very definition of art as an expression of human creativity roots all art in the realm of subjectivity. Thereby, with all the billions of people on the planet and all their different tastes and worldviews, it's pretty much impossible for any intellectual property to please absolutely everyone in all its aspects: someone somewhere will find something they didn't like. Which is awesome: one of the great things about art is that 'water cooler' quality which encourages discussion and gets people comparing their experiences with the piece, even criticising some of the imperfections they noticed. For example, have you ever walked out of a cinema with a friend and had a discussion about a lazy plot point or maybe an off performance? Most likely, but did that little round of criticism mean you didn't like the film?
Of course not (well, depends on the film obviously). Just because you can criticise a work doesn't mean you don't like it: criticising and disliking are two different things. Even films I love have really noticeable flaws (Blade Runner, for example, has mostly quite sub-par acting and the pacing/plot structure is a mess), yet I can still see through those flaws and enjoy other aspects of the film (back to Blade Runner, I love it for its excellent world building, visuals and audio design). Obviously I'm not saying you should just flat out ignore a film's flaws, quite the opposite actually, but you should be able to take any film, even ones you love, and weigh up what works and doesn't work, whilst still being able to enjoy it. Considering no film is truly perfect, every film from Citizen Kane down to The Room has at least a few things that can be criticised, but both these films can still be (somewhat) enjoyed for different reasons, despite or even because of its flaws. Criticism can even help you discover what it is that you like about your favourite films, even if that is by eliminating what you don't enjoy.
In this repsect, criticism is an essential part of life, especially in the creative industries, for without criticism nothing will ever get better. Say we have two people, Gary and Jeff. Gary makes a film or a painting or a song and shows his work to Jeff. Now, Jeff could just say "Yeah Gary, really good. Top notch" and Gary would then go on to create more films or paintings or songs, without ever really coming to understand his strengths and weaknesses, even getting progressively worse, as he takes riskier creative decisions with the safety that Jeff will always love what he makes.
Or, alternatively, Jeff could say "Not bad, Gary, but I think you could maybe work on this, this and this.", at which point Gary now has some feedback he can actually work on, and the next time he makes something, he can use this advice to try and improve his work, and thus make greater art for everyone.
Unfortunately, there seems to be some kind of stigma attached to criticism nowadays, since somewhere along the line, criticism has become synonymous with hatred. Now, obviously there's two sides to this coin. For example, the internet is full of hyper-critical entertainment shows such as the Angry Video Game Nerd, Nostalgia Critic, Zero Punctuation and CinemaSins to name a few, and a lot of more casual audiences have come to regard these shows as the face of criticism, despite the fact these are all entertainment shows. Now, it's not like these shows aren't truthful in their criticisms, but positives are reduced and negatives exaggerated for the sake of comedic effect, and reviews of these nature are not intended to be taken completely seriously. CinemasSins specifically has become a bit of a bugbear lately, since as entertaining as it used to be (yeah, I said it), I know people who think that their deliberately nitpicky form of criticism is a legit review of the film in question, and that these are indicative of quality.
Due to this stigma, it's becoming more and more difficult to criticise work, especially that of friends. As you'd expect, I have a lot of creative friends and it seems so difficult to tell people what you really think about their output just out of fear that they might take your well-intended criticism as an attack.
And please don't think I'm somehow above all this criticism; I've heard the argument before of "How would you like it if someone criticised your work?" and to the people who seem to believe this is an actual retaliation, I say please do. No, seriously, I invite you, nay, implore you to go check out my work and criticise the shit out of it. I am so tired of friends and family members telling me my films are great, either unwilling or unable to point out all the many flaws, and I'm itching for a fresh view on my efforts to see what actually works and doesn't. As long as your criticism is constructive/helpful, valid (i.e. not an incredibly petty nitpick or flat-out falsehood) and presented in a pleasant manner, it will always be welcome here, as it should anywhere else.
So in answer to the original question, this is why I criticise: because if I didn't, I would not be doing my duty as a viewer.
