My thoughts on critics…
I used to write film and television reviews for the paper at U-M and it was such a cool thing, to think that your opinion was revered by so many people. You start getting drunk with the power of it, that you had the ability to influence people’s desires to see a movie by what you said about it. You quickly learn that the most fun reviews to write are bad reviews, because then you can go to town ripping some silly piece of shit to shreds.
After I made my own films and came out to LA and witnessed production, I realized how worthless critics are. After you’ve been through enough production nightmares of machine malfunctions, actors/actresses who partied too hard the night before and didn’t show up ready to work, of shots that you didn’t get to quite put together the story you want, you realize that sometimes having a coherent film is a miracle. And often the reasons films come out looking like they’re flawless at least in terms of production, is because they were able to reach deep after most of the film was in the can, and find more money to fix all the mistakes. If a critic can not show that he can do better with the same amount of resources, or if he has never made anything or done anything to show that he has done what he claims to be an expert of and has a true understanding of the process and the product, then what is a critic, outside of a catty bystander sitting on his self-appointed throne? What is he, but an average fan who someone gave the permission to yell the loudest? If you’ve never done it or can’t do it, you haven’t earned the right to disparage the work of someone who has done it.
That’s when I became ashamed for my time as a critic. I feel guilty for all the bad reviews I’ve written that were gleefully mean, and I hope that karma doesn’t come back to haunt me.
The hardest thing about putting your work out there are the critics. Some critics have valid points, but there are those people who are haters because they’ve never done anything but they feel they have a right to say someone else’s work sucks, or to make ignorant comments (for example, most of the Youtube population). Or there are people who are truly jealous because someone else did something that they could never do, while they wasted their own personal potential.
So this is my rule of thumb when it comes to critics (both of your creative work and of you as a person):
If you would not invite this person into your home, why would you invite him into your head and your heart?
If someone has criticism that helps you improve, let that in. Sometimes that’s a blessing. But anyone else doling out bullshit just to make you feel bad, they can only hurt you if you let them in to do so. Do you even value this person as a person, let alone his opinion?
It’s easier said than done, but just try to remember that anytime someone anonymous or known says something stupid about your work or about you as a person–if you wouldn’t invite them into your home, do not invite them into your head and your heart.
