How Honest Should a Critic Be?

A critic is defined by his/her credibility, right? Well, what if you had to sacrifice a part of your honesty in order to get interviews with actors and actresses so you could continue to provide your site with content?

While I’ve gotten in arguments via e-mail and even telephone with directors of theatre and film about my work before, the end result was always the same. Ultimately, they understood I had a job to do.

They create art. A huge part of my craft is telling others how well I think they execute their attempts at creation.

It’s a slippery slope, but again, one I didn’t have to deal with in any way that made my job that much more difficult.

That is until the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

I’ve attended the festival before, as well as Sundance in 2010 and hundreds of other events and know that publicists can be both a blessing and a hindrance. The great publicists I’ve dealt with over the years have known what to pitch me and because of that, we’re usually on good terms. Nevertheless, there are always times, more often than not, that they throw a stinker or something with a lack of polish my way and I have to call it the way I see it.

That brings me to the current situation. Last month, I saw “Stuck Between Stations” at Tribeca pre-screenings and wasn’t wowed. The film tries very hard to tell a story of lost love, but never truly connects with the audience. It also uses big name stars in background roles to jazz it up a bit and hide its weaknesses. Overall, it wasn’t a terrible flick, just merely mediocre. After the film, I was e-mailed by publicist Adam Kersh, in what has become customary after a screener, which said:

“Thanks for coming today – please let me know your thoughts on the film when you have a moment!”

Walking through the city, I soon answered on my Blackberry:

“Thanks for having me Adam.

I thought Rosen and Lister-Smith have true potential, but the script felt a bit haphazard, too much jumping around with all the crazy environments that were sidetracking us from the two solid characters being portrayed.

These two characters tell a warm story of hope and openness, but the script doesn’t give them the opportunity to truly shine.

Hope that helps,

Pat”

His reply?

“Thanks for sharing…”

I wish I were making this up. I really do. To think for a second that anyone expected me not to tell them what I felt, especially when they asked me, a critic, was a bit bizarre.

I was raised in old-school German-Irish family in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn that pulled no punches. If you didn’t like something, you said so. If you ever wanted to know what someone thought, you asked. If you didn’t want to know, you didn’t. Pretty simple, right? At the same time, you never threw someone’s opinion in their face, especially when you asked for it personally. It was a transparent dichotomy that relied on truthfulness, accuracy, support and intestinal fortitude. I like to think that my upbringing played a role in why I’m a decent critic today.

All jokes aside, I thought I was being completely fair there. My review was a bit harsher, but still kept the same motif. I expressed that the two stars of the film were solid and have potential. I also told Mr. Kersh that I wanted to interview the both of them for the site.

My reply to that query?

“Sure, as long as you will keep the interview positive we can make this happen…”

Wow. At that moment, I felt like I was stuck in a Deadpool comic book. Did this guy just cross the fourth wall? As a journalist, I know these guys only want positive and fluffy coverage, but is he supposed to say that to me? To think that there was this clear-coated layer of hypocritical nonsense embedded into my craft, which had gotten to the point where publicists could now openly state it, simply terrified me.

All I could do was reply back:

“Well I told you I think they’re [Sam Rosen and Zoe Lister-Jones, the actors I wanted to interview] both talented and an interview has nothing to do with my opinion if that makes you feel better. I have nothing to be negative about towards them.”

That was the truth. Both of these two did the best they could with the script and that’s what I wanted to discuss-their performances, not the execution of the movie as a whole. That’s like telling a housekeeper that you don’t like the home they clean.

Fast forward two weeks and now I’m supposed to have a pair of 15-minute interviews with Rosen and Lister-Jones. 10 minutes before the interview, I get a phone call from another publicist, Emily Lu, who tells me that the interviews have been canceled because the filmmakers were “concerned with my review.” I must admit, Lu was much more professional and courteous than Kersh, [aside from Kersh, all of the publicists I’ve ever come in contact during Tribeca have been accommodating and pros] but she ultimately told me she’d see what she could do and offered no answers aside from that.

A few hours later, I got no answer after I sent Mr. Kersh an e-mail to ask what happened. After I sent another one a few hours after that, I got this in reply from him:

“I’m sorry but Sam and Zoe are unavailable.”

This is what you get for being honest.

I’m not saying that this hasn’t happened to other critics and journalists over the years. I’m not saying that it won’t happen again either. All I’m saying here is that it’s wrong and it hurts our craft. How are we, as opinion writers, supposed to honestly critique what we see if we have a fear of getting the access we need to conduct our work, by simply being honest?

Rock and Roll god Gene Simmons has always said there is no such thing as bad press. In the case of film and any other type of entertainment critique, I have to agree. We serve a purpose in that readers come to us for a second opinion and at times, the only opinion, but at the same time, if someone is interested enough in someone’s work, there isn’t a critic alive that could keep them from it.

A note to “artists”: to keep an entertainment journalist away from your work, just because they don’t appreciate it as much as you want them to, shows weakness in your character, not the writer’s.

A note to anyone else that wants or expects a fantastic review every time they produce some kind of art that we can write about: if you want every film to be an award-winner, every song to be a Grammy nominee, every comic book worthy of an Eisner, go somewhere else. This site is not for you.

I’m always concerned that my writers aren’t critical enough and I believe a lot of times they aren’t. They’re too nice and not fair enough. They don’t like to hurt feelings. However, at the end of the day, I feel that both they and myself can and will stand behind the work that is done here. If my being honest means our readers won’t get to hear two interviews with a pair of young and talented actors, well then I guess that will have to be the case.

The day I created this site, I promised my staff and myself that I wouldn’t have it be chock-full of “Homer” reviews, praising and loving work that didn’t deserve it. At the end of the day, “Stuck Between Stations” deserves a handshake, not a kiss on the cheek and a curtsy. The fact that I made that clear in my review is something I am proud of and something I can and will stand by.

Again, while it pains me to rob our readers of any sort of exclusive content, ethics and credibility are all a critic- and we have left when our bones turn to dust.

Others, I think, might lose it a bit earlier though.