Peter Bart: In A Buzz-Less Market, Smart New Movies Must Overcome Critics’ Disdain & Audience Torpor

Peter Bart
·4 min read
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“Uninspired.” “Never catches fire.” “Non-memorable.”

I was sifting through reviews last weekend as the first step in my mission to re-discover the habit of moviegoing. With Barbenheimer finally behind us (well, almost), I decided to see three new movies on successive days – yes, buying tickets and going to theaters.

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But first come the critics: Their reviews, I assumed, would be tepid (excerpts above.) Box office results over the Presidents Day weekend were the lowest in 23 years, down 17% from a year ago — not a good portent. If there are some promising new movies out there, why are they hitting the wall?

Here’s a clue: Remember wide openings and buzz? Well, welcome to the new age of nonbuzz – new releases are greeted by the sounds of silence.

I decided to be resolute, anyway. I’m buying tickets.

Spoiler alert: I thoroughly enjoyed my filmgoing adventure. But there seems to be a total breakdown in the way we communicate with one another about the experience. And we’d better figure out how to solve it, or we’ll end up terminally Netflixed to our sofas.

My new mantra: Ignore the critics and commit to some detective work. When and where are these new semi-secret movies opening? What are the release schedules? Will they be streaming? To be sure, it’s all going to be subject to change: As with doctors’ appointments, you have to double-check before buying your ticket.

The upshot: Of the three movies I happened upon this week, all opened to mixed-to-bad reviews and flaccid marketing. As it turned out, I liked all three (a lot), but when I reported that to friends, I received skeptical looks. You paid? You liked? You need help.

One was French (A Taste of Things), a second German (The Teachers’ Lounge) and the third semi-Jamaican (Bob Marley: One Love). None earned a “rave” from critics and arguably didn’t deserve to. Each had serious flaws in structure and narrative, yet each deserved an audience mini-rave.

The Taste of Things is a deep-dive adventure in gastronomy, yet also a touching love story starring Juliette Binoche (it once was called Pot au Feu, but French movies keep changing titles). Teachers’ Lounge (a “stay away”-type title) is a tense thriller in an unexpectedly intriguing setting and a strong message. Bob Marley: One Love is a confusingly constructed Jamaican fever dream dedicated to those who venerate Marley’s reggae and his quest (he died in 1981).

Technically, all three reflect their low-budget patchwork origins. None would inspire the sort of “money quote” that triggers a hit – critics save their raves for safer bets like $200 million Chris Nolan or Martin Scorsese art movies.

Alas, all three also represent the sort of cinema that inspires critics to prove that they’re smarter than the filmmakers. “One Love takes the Marley image from flat to lenticular,” said The New York Times review by Amy Nicholson “If you never got to see Marley, this is a fine simulacrum.” To be sure, “simulacrums” consistently invite limp box office returns.

Katie Walsh in the Los Angeles Times laments that the Marley film “falls into the dreaded music-biopic cliché trap” and “lacks the essence of Marley.” But elsewhere in that newspaper comes the news that One Love is an $80 million-plus worldwide surprise. Despite the critical disdain, the movie registered with both kids and geriatric ticket buyers.

Other big studio releases, meanwhile, floundered. Madame Web from Sony, about a Spider-Man character, is locked in the super-hero basement, and Argylle, a $200 million Apple thriller, also failed to ignite. Even the inventory of trailers this week seemed pathetic: Dune: Part Two looked downright lonely onscreen — a reminder that the number of wide releases will be well below the 110 mark of last year, when Avatar: The Way of Water caused a splash.

So what’s going on? The distribution disconnect seems as urgent as the critical one. But here’s the dirty little secret: There are some damn good “sleepers” out there, hiding in the cinematic underbrush. It’s a search: Personally, I plan to pursue it.

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