I bet Kevin Smith feels like he’s going to help democratize film discussion and wrestle the dialogue out of the hands of stuffy critics with his show Spoilers, which makes me wonder what the fuck he thinks we’re all doing out here. His Hulu series is described thusly:
Spoilers” is Kevin Smith’s movie “revue,” a multi-act film extravaganza mixing lively group chats, interviews with movie and pop culture icons, animated shorts and cinematic reenactments. Each week, Kevin, a special guest and movie lovers passionately sound off on the year’s most anticipated summer blockbusters, breaking down their favorite scenes and what should have been left on the cutting room floor.
And you can see him have a :44 second stroke on screen as he pitches the show in the teaser.
Indeed. Now obviously this is just an opportunity for Hulu to have some programming to go after the movie geek market and fill out their original interview show section a bit, but whether this was Smith’s idea or a pitch he’s hopping on to, it’s loaded as fuck. You see, you may remember one of Smith’s many public rants about film critics, including one in which he outright states that he would never let critics see and rip on his films again. At the time he staked his claim with the hyper-defensive anti-intellectual lot who eschew critical thought when it comes to things they blindly like. Lest you think his hatred has cooled, note that he still casually pisses all over any critics who see films early.
The notion is: Watch the movie with everybody, we take them out and pay for them to go see the movie, kick back — on opening day, none of this early bullshit, ain’t doing it like those critics, doing it legit — and then just go down the street, sit down and have a gabfest, man.
Fuckin’ yeah man, real movie debate, like you can have with your buddies in the car. Not like those fanboy dicks on the internet…
We’re going to do a beat called Movie Goon where like I’ll have on my friend Malcolm Ingram, who hates everything. He’s one of these nihilists. If it’s popular, he can’t stand it. He represents the internet. So we’ll bring him on and let him have his say and then we’ll beat him up verbally and tell him why he’s wrong — have a good old-fashioned debate.
He represents the internet, please. Awesome, outward hostility towards any questioning of the value and mindlessness of pop culture entertainment. Let’s show that cynical asshole what’s what for shitting on our blockbusters! Moves aren’t for reviewing, they’re for SAVORING. And yet somehow I have a feeling they’ll be all about dumping on Ice Age or any other non-geek-service movie that falls in their laps, since they’re sure as shit not lending a hand to anything not cooked up for the masses:
Snow White and the Huntsman
Prometheus
Rock of Ages
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Magic Mike
The Amazing Spider-Man
Ice Age: Continental Drift
The Dark Knight Rises
The Watch
The Bourne Legacy
Total Recall
Smith has never been subtle about how poorly he’s handled the routine critical bashings his ever-more-shitty piles of shit have accumulated, and now he’s getting aggressive about diluting the conversation. Well I don’t feel the need to be any more subtle: fuck him and fuck his show. For all the nerd-service he postures at providing, he sure is all about reinforcing the hostile and insular sides of fandom that most makes it resemble the douchey jockdom that once thrived on shoving around the smart kids. That he fails to understand how criticism and professional critics works to find the new shit, the underseen shit, the shit that would have no life otherwise is an indication of how lazy he has truly become. He’s a funny motherfucker- I still wish he’d just moved into stand-up after Clerks. Imagine the universe where Smith pioneered his own sort of Louie C.K. career…
Keep working to make critics your enemy as you retreat from filmmaking with your tail between your leg, Smith. We won’t miss you.
Source | Wired