Martin Scorsese Penned A Huffy Column About Rotten Tomatoes
October 11, 2017 / Posted by: C.J.
Hollywood is going through a nasty crisis at the moment due to the ongoing ick fest that is Harvey Weinstein. So it's great timing that the Hollywood Reporter got Martin Scorsese to use his leading voice as a prominent male director to pen a column about…Rotten Tomatoes and mother!?
Martin says Rotten Tomatoes is ruining Hollywood because it puts the already cutthroat box office race on steroids. Martin loved finishing school because it meant no more grades, but Rotten Tomatoes has made him feel like he's right back in homeroom on a Monday morning when the teacher is walking right at you with a smarmy sneer and your spelling test from Friday in her paw:
"I'm talking about market research firms like Cinemascore, which started in the late '70s, and online "aggregators" like Rotten Tomatoes, which have absolutely nothing to do with real film criticism. They rate a picture the way you'd rate a horse at the racetrack… They have everything to do with the movie business and absolutely nothing to do with either the creation or the intelligent viewing of film. The filmmaker is reduced to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an unadventurous consumer."
Martin writes that he prefers movies to be about the art and not just about the megabucks a superhero movie can bring in because audiences in Muncie are flocking to the theater just like audiences in Manhattan. He says that Rotten Tomatoes may as well be called MeaniePants McGhee because it is hostile and encourages people to write asshole reviews of movies.
Which brings us to the umpteenth defense of the flop mother!. Martin defended it by saying that the fact that everyone left the theater going, "da FUQ did I just pay $20 to see?", is all a part of its charm:
"Is it a picture that has to be explained? What about the experience of watching mother!? It was so tactile, so beautifully staged and acted — the subjective camera and the POV reverse angles, always in motion… The horror, the dark comedy, the biblical elements, the cautionary fable — they're all there, but they're elements in the total experience, which engulfs the characters and the viewers along with them. Only a true, passionate filmmaker could have made this picture, which I'm still experiencing weeks after I saw it."
Martin said Rotten Tomatoes really limits a film from growing into a success. He hinted that if Rotten Tomatoes was around in the old days, former flop-to-classic films like The Wizard Of Oz and It's A Wonderful Life would have stayed in the bargain bin.
Taking a peek at Martin's Rotten Tomatoes page, he really shouldn't have that much of a dog in this fight since most of his films are pretty freaking fresh…however, Shark Tale is sitting at a 35% rotten rating. Damn you, Rotten Tomatoes. If it weren't for you, Shark Tale could have blossomed into the animated Citizen Kane!!!
Pic: Wenn.com
Tags: Martin Scorsese, Meanies