The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
What’s wrong with the so-called critics, or worst, pseudo-critics, of films in the Philippines?
As it turns out, there isn’t enough education in the country about criticism as a discipline and as a vocation.
Or if there’s any, they are miseducation or simply thrown out of the windows in favor of crass commercialism, subjective views, shock value, sensationalism etc. in the name of likes, viral points and shares to meet the standards and high-paying digital earnings in algorithms or simply, to achieve popularity or to gain notoriety.
In the Philippines, we don’t run out of charlatans in analyzing and reflecting on cinema.
This oversight on movie reviews is already a national malaise.
One example is a self-appointed film reviewer on Facebook who mostly mangles local products without using well-contextualized analysis but careless judgment which is very unethical, unprofessional and to a certain extent, immoral.
I couldn’t let the reviewer’s assessment pass on Arjanmar Rebeta and Jeffrey Jeturian’s “Lakambini Gregoria de Jesus” which was labeled as a metadocu fiction film just like that without rancor.
The “critic” just applied a skin-deep analysis sans consideration on the breadth and width or the range of the movie as an important factor in the pursuits of change in society because films also inspire and foster camaraderie and execute change from bad to better to best.
“Lakambini Gregoria de Jesus” is cut above the rest both in form and content/
The “critic” wasn’t able to grasp the intention of the biopic and stuck instead on the formal attributes of the film project.
Award-giving bodies might also be responsible for the proliferation of sophomoric if not nonsensical reviews that simply went viral but unfortunately pollutes public minds.
These lapses are abominable.
From Aristotle to T.S. Eliot
Criticism of any kind is a gargantuan task.
It is a professional commitment.
As a matter of fact, it is a freedom and a responsibility.
In a democracy, liberty on speech and multimedia is a guarantee in its laws but immature and out-of-context forms of conveyance just catch attention are no-no.
I took up a course on Literary Criticism in college under the erudite mentor and award-winning literati Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta and it was a comprehensive and rigorous subject to work on in an undergrad level.
In one semester, we were able to digest, in passing, though, the many theories and philosophical frameworks of literary criticism from Aristotle to T.S. Eliot. One had to get to a master’s degree to dig deeper.
Ma’am Ophie was such a wonderful and well-equipped critic with high calibre credentials and a body of knowledge under her belt.
I learned a lot from her unique teaching method.
That was in the 70s.
Those were just on literature.
What more of the other artistic media.
Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo
In my freshman year at UST, meanwhile, I was bombarded with home works like movie, TV, theater and book reviews by my fascinating, dynamic and scholarly teacher Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo without her teaching us the basics or even the fundamentals of review–just simply, a review—much more of criticism on higher levels–however, neophyte or armchair.
I thought she relied mostly on our perception and comprehension of things around us as young adults with academic backgrounds to boot in high school—me as a product of a provincial school—and hoped to apply a daily dose of her English grammar.
I learned a lot from Ma’am Jing, no matter getting me low but passing grades.
Pantoja-Hidalgo has reached maturity in arts criticism and maintained her expertise in the field.
Until I learned other thrusts on criticism at UP and PNU like historical materialism of Karl Marx or psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud or the post-modern concepts of feminism, Michel Foucault’s power/knowledge equation, semiotics etc.
I have been egged on to write reviews but initially, I refused because I believe I still have a lot to learn in criticism.
I gradually employ, though, what I have been taught formally with my own interpretation of films.