What do critics know?
Once a week, the “Guardian” nwspaper carries a review of reviews of various current cultural events. This week, among the films considered, is the new release “Babel” starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.
The “Guardian” gives the movie 3/10, while its sister newspaper the “Observer” rates it 8/10. The “Times” thinks the film merits 10/10, but its sister paper the “Sunday Times” only allocates it 1/10. The “Telegraph” rates the movie as 7/10, while its sister paper the “Sunday Telegraph” believes that it is worthy of only 4/10. Finally, the “Independent” gives the work 7/10, but the sister paper the “Independent on Sunday” goes for 4/10.
So the ratings vary from the minimum possible of 1/10 to the maximum possible of 10/10. The arithmetical average of the eight ratings is 6/10. but no critic actually allocates that particular scoring.
What does this tell us? First, that critics are only human and often make very different judgements on the same film, so you should only treat their views as a guide and ultimately make your own judgment. Second, when there is no consensus on a film’s worth, this is a particularly good occasion for you to make up your own mind. Third, when a film is a bit different, the critics can be all over the place and “Babel” is different.
For decades, I have taken a monthly movie magazine called “Film Review”. In the current issue, five critics give ratings to “Babel”. Two give it 3/5 and three give it 4/5 which is a much more consistent ranking than the eight newspaper critics mentioned earlier.
I hope to see “Babel” in the next week or two and will let you know my own view then.