How Much Power Do Film Critics Really Have in the Awards Race?

Tyler Coates
·5 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Of this year’s 10 best picture nominees, Netflix’s Don’t Look Up is likely the most divisive. Adam McKay’s star-studded climate change satire — in which Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play astronomers attempting to spread the news that a comet is hurtling toward Earth and will destroy all of human civilization — is the worst-reviewed film in the category and the only title to be considered “rotten” with a 56 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. (The last best picture nominee with a similar designation was 2011’s post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which earned a 45 percent RT score.)

Perhaps disheartened by the critical reaction to his film, McKay — a previous Oscar winner for writing the screenplay for 2015’s The Big Short — took to Twitter after its Dec. 24 launch on the streamer to share his theory of why the film wasn’t connecting with critics. “Loving all the heated debate about our movie. But if you don’t have at least a small ember of anxiety about the climate collapsing (or the U.S. teetering) I’m not sure Don’t Look Up makes any sense,” he posted Dec. 29. “It’s like a robot viewing a love story. ‘WHy ArE thEir FacEs so cLoSe ToGether?’ ”

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Journalist David Sirota, who served as adviser and speechwriter for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, and who shares a best original screenplay nomination this year with McKay, followed that with another message: “Criticize the movie — it’s art, you don’t have to like it. But when someone does this, it proves that among some critics, the anger is about something deeper. They’re mad the movie raised uncomfortable questions about the media industry they’re in.”

The accusation that film critics collectively dislike a movie because of some shared deep-rooted resentment and anger about its message is just as much of a bad faith argument, one that suggests that its filmmakers didn’t want to hear criticism of it at all — or at least don’t fully accept the critic’s task. But it also heightens how deeply sensitive filmmakers are when it comes to takedowns from critics — particularly in the thick of awards season, when only the best of the best tend to be elevated to trophy status.

The role of the film critic in today’s media environment is frequently debated on “Film Twitter” — most often when fans of a popular flick take umbrage with negative reviews — and in this Oscars season, the film critic’s influence on the race seems to be under the social media microscope. The films that earn the most attention from the Academy are often the best-reviewed features of the year; 2021 was no exception. Six of the best picture contenders have a 90 percent RT score or higher: CODA (96 percent), Drive My Car (98 percent), King Richard (90 percent), Licorice Pizza (91 percent), The Power of the Dog (94 percent) and West Side Story (92 percent). The remaining three are considered “fresh”: Belfast (87 percent), Dune (81 percent) and Nightmare Alley (79 percent).

But as the Academy perennially earns jeers from its detractors for nominating prestige Oscar bait over crowd-pleasing populist fare, awards pundits have counted film critics — who often champion overlooked movies and performances over the Oscar frontrunners in their professional groups’ picks — on the list of insiders blocking box office hits like No Time to Die from the Academy’s top category.

That has been the explanation for the success of Janus Films’ Drive My Car, Japan’s submission for international feature and the best-reviewed film in the best picture category. Its Oscar momentum picked up speed after critics’ groups across the country — from Boston to Los Angeles, New York to Seattle — named it their best film of the year over the higher-profile titles campaigning for their laurels. It might be the only example this year of a film whose critical response earned it more attention from Academy members, and propelled it toward a nom past such contenders as The Lost Daughter and Tick, Tick … Boom! Compared with the studio-backed films with generous marketing budgets, Drive My Car, which earned only $4.6 million worldwide, seemingly came out of nowhere — a member of the SAG Award nominating committee admitted to me that they hadn’t heard of it until days before the Oscar noms were announced Feb. 9. In addition to best international feature and picture, it earned nominations for adapted screenplay and director.

While Drive My Car benefited from the critical love (and the expanding Academy voting body undeterred by subtitles, with 25 percent of members now based outside the U.S.), it’s hard to assert that critics have the most power regarding a movie’s success or failure — Don’t Look Up‘s Oscar noms for best picture, original screenplay, editing and score prove otherwise. McKay’s film also earned six Critics Choice Award nominations, including best picture (five more than Drive My Car‘s single nom for best foreign-language film) and also won awards from the African-American Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review, as well as critics groups in Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.

The truth is that a Rotten Tomatoes critics score is far from the only variable in determining a best picture Oscar. Of course, at the end of the day, while critics may play a role in what films make the cut, they do not vote for the best picture winners. They can merely hope, along with the rest of us non-Academy members who watch the Oscars, that their favorite film might take home a statue or two by the end of the ceremony — and they will likely share their dismay if it doesn’t.

This story first appeared in the March 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.