Last night I returned from my local cinema filled with excitement after seeing Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel’; so much excitement in fact that I began trawling the internet for blogs, videos and critics opinions and views as I became so encompassed in the hype. At the peak of excitement at around midnight, Total Film’s twitter account posted a video of their team discussing and reviewing the film; perfect timing! After hitting play however I became somewhat down heartened at seeing four men sitting around a table. As a woman I wanted to hear what this big blockbuster superhero film meant to females; whether it was considered approachable, how it handled Lois Lane as a character from a female critics point of view. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure these four men know what they’re talking about, it’s why they do what they do, I was just a little miffed that a woman was not included in the discussion. The four guys discussions and banter was still funny and insightful, I would have just liked the input and opinions of a woman.
So today I woke up and found that this video was still playing on my mind and so I began a search for some female internet critics that I could add to my bookmarks… and I searched… and I kept searching…
Instead I found this article explaining how film criticism is even more male-dominated than it was six years ago. More specifically, the study found that of the top critics on Rotten Tomatoes, female critics make up just 18% of the film reviews. At this point I was in disbelief and a little exasperated.
Furiously opening new tabs left, right and centre, I eventually found myself on the Guardian film blog website; now desperate to find myself a well-established female critic preferably employed by a reputable magazine or newspaper site. This effort was mostly just to assure myself that there were some out there. On the first page of the Guardian’s film blog, there was just one article written by a female and another fourteen articles written by male critics.
Now, I know that I haven’t spent weeks and months slowly searching the internet for female film critics and I am 100% sure that there are some amazing ones out there. However, in my couple of hours of searching, shouldn’t there be a fair few more that I should have stumbled upon?!
Hence my creation of this little blog.
I am a former media student and I am an avid film and television watcher however I am not going to pretend that I know anything more than any other film critic. I am however going to have my own opinions and unique take on films. I enjoy discussing films, tv shows and pop culture, and I know that I bore my family and friends when attempting to do this with them as they aren’t really interested in how I felt when that specific camera angle did that thing over that guy’s shoulder.
So here’s my first post. A bit of why this came to be created I suppose. A mixture of always wanting to begin a blog and the last push that discovering that article about female critics gave me to finally create one. I understand that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of film blogs out there and so I don’t expect avid readers; I am doing this because I love it and if someone else does too then that’s just great.
Emma Screens... 