WrapPRO Roundtable: Has Rotten Tomatoes Democratized Film Criticism – or Killed All Nuance?

During a lively discussion about popular online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, two critics and a movie producer were, well, about 50% fresh on sharing the critic’s microphone with an algorithm. On a panel moderated by TheWrap’s Diane Haithman, indie producer Mynette Louie (“I Carry You With Me,” “Swallow”) said she has long been a fan of Rotten Tomatoes, joking, “Because most of my films are Certified Fresh, I love it, it’s great.” She also praised how RT has “democratized” the critical playing field to include critics of color, as well as more female reviewers. However, Louie remained skeptical about a “binary approach” to assessing a movie’s quality. “I have a great respect for film criticism and nuance,” she said, lamenting that “nuance, in general, is missing from our world, thanks to Twitter and social media … Everything is kind of reduced to an algorithm nowadays.” Claudia Puig, a critic for KPCC and president of L.A. Film Critics Association who was recently named programming director of Santa Barbara Film Festival, said she had “mixed feelings” about aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes. “While I think it’s extremely helpful for the moviegoer, to have an aggregate and to be able to get a...

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