The Internet making everyone a film critic doesn’t impress David Cronenberg.
The Canadian director, whose Hollywood-focused movie satire Maps to the Stars is set for a U.S. release on Feb. 27, is blaming social media and the blogosphere for killing off the expert film critic. “I think the role of the critic has been very diminished, because you get a lot of people who set themselves up as critics by having a website where it says that they’re a critic,” Cronenberg told the Canadian Press wire service.
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The veteran director added that “legitimate” critics, mostly aligned with traditional media outlets, are losing clout to amateurs in the Internet age. “Then there are all these other people who just say they’re critics, and you read their writing, and they can’t write, or they can write and their writing reveals that they’re quite stupid and ignorant,” Cronenberg, whose movies have long polarized critics, said.
Maps to the Stars, which debuted at Cannes in competition, was no exception. The film, to be released domestically by Focus World, sees Robert Pattinson play a limo driver/aspiring actor-screenwriter, Julianne Moore an aging leading lady and Mia Wasikowska in the role of a mysterious young woman who becomes her assistant.
