A.O. Scott vs Neal Gabler on cultural elitism.

My brother and I have been arguing about this endlessly. My brother takes the stance that American film critics have a taste that doesn’t align with the American populace, making them obsolete. Nerd rage has irrupted between critic A.O.Scott and writer Neal Gabler, so I thought I might put my opinion down on this for good.

Devon (my brother) and I often talk about the fact that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made 850 million dollars, but was critically panned, only receiving a positive review from twenty percent of critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

A.O. Scott making Harry Potter look cool

How can these people still be relevant? What is the point of saying not to go see a film that people are going to see anyway? Does it serve a purpose? Well, I’ll get to that I swear.

I do not consider myself a critic. I’m a dude with a website who talks about movies, blogs about news, and makes funny lists. I don’t belong to any organization and only write articles and make podcasts because I enjoy the process and love movies, but I do think I can weigh in on this one.

A.O. Scott, the dorkiest looking white guy on the planet, weighed in on a recent article by Neal Gabler called “The end to cultural elitism“. It is indeed a bad article, the Gabler one, but Gab’s heart is in the right place.

Scott butt fucked Gab’s article saying, “there is a cultural elite, in America, which tries its utmost to manipulate the habits and tastes of consumers. It consists of the corporations who sell nearly everything with the possible exception of classical music and conceptual arts, and while its methods include some of the publicity-driven hype that finds its way into newspapers, magazines and other traditional media, its main tool is not criticism but marketing.” That’s what we call in online gaming as getting “ROFL stomped”. Neal Gabler, you just got pwned by the white Urkel.

Scott is so fucking correct in this statement. The corporate elite IS our cultural elite. It gears our taste in ways we might not want it to and mind fucks us with everything from celebrity tie-ins, ads on our food, talk shows, and who knows what else.

Do you think men would really think they have to drink beer and wear jerseys during football games all on their own? This brainwashing is all corporate elitists care about.

But with that said, I get what Gab means, but he went about it the wrong way. Usually when you make a strong argument, especially against a group of people who are pretty damn good at smelling bullshit, you usually have to back up your statements with evidence and sensible argument. Gabler’s article almost comes off as a troll (An internet troll, not an “he’s eating her and now he’s going to eat me” kind.)

Scott says this in regards to the Gabster, “In 2010, for instance, the highest-grossing movie, Toy Story 3, was also the most critically admired, with a nearly perfect Rotten Tomatoes score. There were also movies that reviewers and audiences seemed united in hating, like How Do You Know.” Also, Black Swan, Inception, and The Social Network, are all on the Top 250 on IMDB, which is voted on by non-critics and were also celebrated, almost universally, by critics. (Although Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring was TOP 250 too. Really?)

I’d make the argument that this evidence proves that the general populace is fighting back against the corporate elite. Not the so-called, “cultural elite”. People want smarter movies. The top grossing movies were, genuinely, cerebral and given good reviews by most professional, accredited critics.

Grossed almost a billion dollars and was critically acclaimed

After all, it is so important to remember that film criticism, like all artistic criticism, is just propaganda. It is just to get people to do or not do something. That is all. It isn’t a war. They’re aren’t political parties. It isn’t us vs. them. It is just the hope that people will go see something, or not.

When Scott put Wall-E and A.I. as his best movies of the 2000s does he think they’re the end-all be-all best movies of that decade, no questions asked? No, I presume not. What he thinks is: “Hey, these are movies I admired, if I put them this high, maybe some people will watch them or take another look at them.” He isn’t saying, “Fuck you, you liked Gladiator in that decade you’re wrong.” He just hopes that the movies will get more viewings and perhaps more accolades.

If corporate elites were able to run wild without critics, or critics reflected only the general populace, what would be the point? We can’t have a hundred Iron Man 2s or ten Transformers films every year. We just can’t.

There has to be someone weighing in who doesn’t just feel like everyone else, because if Transformers 2 is going to make almost a billion bucks anyway, why not point people towards smaller, more cerebral, movies so they can get seen?

You wouldn't just play Modern Warfare 2, would you? You'd probably look up other games recommended by critics.

I really believe in my heart that the best things in life are an acquired taste. If you don’t like a movie at first because it is slow, hard to understand, or in subtitles, try again later! You wouldn’t just listen to pop music or play just the mainstream video games would you? You’d listen to the “Black Keys” and play “Heavy Rain”/”Shadow of the Colossus”, fringe works likely recommended to you by so-called elitists.

If you don’t like contemporary art, ballet, musicals, opera, or other cultural categories, don’t dismiss it as elitist garbage. Read, consider, discuss, then repeat.

In the end people are going to see, do, consume, whatever corporate elites want them to regardless of what people say. Hopefully critics can steer them towards some other good stuff.

-Collin