The Christophers(2025)

Making art is such a poignant endeavor. The final piece you put out is a product of your technique, vision, emotion, story, and really a piece of your soul. Everyone can critique it, and yet no one but the artist themself can know what went into producing it. It's all painful enough as it is, and you add money to the process and everything just becomes a hot mess that can embroil and undo even already established artists.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if I could relate to this struggle more viscerally, but the most consistent creative output are my film reviews, and these are so personal and completely text-based that I can easily use words to preempt/invalidate criticism coming my way, and therefore I do not think it's at all a comparable level of vulnerability. But that did not preclude me from enjoying this wonderful and deeply human story.

There is a thread there about the relationship between artists and critics, how sometimes harsh criticism can intimidate and stymie early artists. It made me wonder if I'm ever too mean in the reviews I write, that I'm sure the creators never see, but if they ever did see, whether they'd be too hurtful. I don't think so, primarily because for better or worse we live in a world where art is also a business. In such a world, unvarnished critiques of works that were blatantly not made to provoke or connect, but only to make money, is about the only means of discipline we have against the money devouring everything. Sometimes there are misfires, but as long as the critics are not mean-spirited, I believe the critique would be a net good, even if it's scathing. So I will continue to drum the hate train against the likes of the Super Mario Galaxy movie.

I must complain that I did not very much enjoy Michael Coel's performance. I loved her in I May Destroy You, but she's just not giving since making that masterpiece. She makes the same face in every scene. I think maybe she just needs to write and direct another thing where she can do that and it still works.