One of the strengths of a site like Filmotomy is the diversity of its contributors. We all bring something to this site, and in turn, the site is better because of it. I don’t contribute as frequently as our Deputy Editor Bianca Garner does, or even our Fearless Leader, Robin Write. But I take pride in pouring everything I have to say – the passion of explaining your position, good, bad or indifferent – in talking about film, because that’s what you have to do when you’re talking about the movies. I can strongly disagree with someone’s takeaway with something, but I’ll always respect that writer’s passion about why they felt a certain way.
And then…
So imagine my reaction when the online site Jezebel put out a list of actors who we think are good actors, but really are terrible ones. Right now, you’re probably searching for the link in that last sentence, but don’t bother. I’m not going to link that clickbait trash on my article, because it’s a waste of my time, as well as yours. But here’s a tweet of what was said, and bear in mind, this is all that was said about these actors:
Somebody was paid money to write this pic.twitter.com/NNhSsbMlEi
— Alistair Pride-r 🏳️🌈 (@YesitsAlistair) June 6, 2019
That’s the article: a few words, a list of names and nothing else. No examples, no explanation of why the writer believes these actors are terrible, just… that. Of course, the whole goal was to get traffic for the site and stir up controversy on social media, and in that regard, the writer accomplished her mission. Her list is now a point of conversation among members of #FilmTwitter as well as the masses. But the list of actors whom the writers thinks suck isn’t what pisses me off, though, it’s fairly close.
Where is the passion?
I’m not sure what planet you’re on if you consider Amy Adams, Kristen Stewart, Micheal B. Jordan and Brie Larson terrible actors, but it’s one I can’t imagine I’d want to visit and spend time on. No, what pisses me off is that something like that is passed off as an article for any refutable publication. I’m not a professional film critic, and this website isn’t quite on the same pleateau as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, or Collider, but the lot of us are proud of what we do.
We pour our time, energy, and passions to provide quality content about an industry we love dearly. If a group of unpaid, non-professional film critics can strive to deliver the very best for you, the reader, to ponder over, to enjoy and to perhaps seek out new voices in the medium, or go back and give a particular movie another go-around from a different perspective, then a site like Jezebel has to do vastly better than to allow a garbage article like that to pass on their site.
Furthermore, the fact that a piece of clickbait garbage like that can pass as an article on movies is, to be blunt about it, fucking insulting – not just to respectable film journalists, but also to people like me, who love the medium with a burning passion. You have to bring more to the table than just ‘These people suck! Nah-nah-nah-nah!’ All this does is announce that you’re fucking immature and you have no goddamn business discussing movies. Do better than to throw out putrid, lazy, nonsensical bullshit, wrapped in an article like that.
LOL at how riled you all are over this. The whole point of the list was that it got clicks, it’s clickbait. It got the entire internet talking about it. Digital journalism, at least today, is about fusing good content with the need for clicks, because there are only so many ad dollars to go around. It sucks, but it’s a necessity. And what the Jezebel piece did was create buzz, debate and extreme reactions. That was the point. And also like… some of your writers doing the most on social media about how unfair it is that they aren’t getting paid for their work while writing woeful pieces littered with inaccuracies, bad grammar and zero insight. What gap are some of these people actually thinking they can fill? So silly. Like I like your site a lot, but some of your writers need to realise that just because they like to write doesn’t mean they have to write and deserve money for that writing. Clover Hope got to Jezebel through graft and years of experience, fighting for work in a field where women of colour are already at a huge disadvantage. This is literally one of a gazillion blogs and some of your writers expect to be “discovered” and paid for their content within months, just for throwing together a couple of thoughts, hitting publish and having a few thousand Twitter followers. Get some perspective man
Part of Jonathan’s niche is that he writes the odd rage rant. He is not The Incredible Hulk, and he generally gets plenty of laughs from it. And there are so many unpaid writers allowed to let off some steam, especially at such pointless content. You can’t spin it with “that’s the nature of the beast” and bringing demographic struggles into it. I assume you work for Jezebel – not that it matters. Are you offering to coach some of my staff on how to produce top quality pieces? As for my writers, we bust our guts getting out varied content daily, go to work, school etc – I personally have two kids and a wife and do not have days off. But, thank you for your click and your comment about perspective.