u/ProfessorNo4776

Lately, I’ve been noticing more people acting like film experts despite having very limited experience with movies.

On Discord, someone used the tired “watch more movies” argument against a person who said the new Mario movie was one of the worst of the year. Out of curiosity, I checked their Letterboxd and found they’d only logged around 150 films total, most of them major blockbusters with the occasional slightly less mainstream director like Nolan or Shyamalan.

The same thing happened with several mods in that server. As soon as they watched something a little outside the mainstream, they’d praise it as a masterpiece and dogpile anyone who disagreed. It felt more like a cult than a film discussion server.

I’ve noticed similar behavior from friends, family, and coworkers. Some will say cinema is dying despite only watching 5–12 movies a year. It makes me wonder if there’s some TikTok trend encouraging people to act like cinephiles.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with only watching a handful of movies or sticking to one genre. Everyone enjoys films differently. What bothers me is when people with limited exposure act condescending toward others or pretend they have some superior understanding of cinema.

Has anyone else been running into this? It feels like this type of person has become much more common recently.

before you rage, read.

Across the spider vers is not a good film. It’s poorly paced, terribly written (especially with Hobie and Indian Spider Man being Gary Stu’s that have no plot relevance other than to be cool, or the film tries to make you believe Miguel is the bad guy for not wanting the universe to collapse, OR how Gwen is turned into an unlikeable prick), and sends downright dangerous messaging for its young audience. Shrek 4 was a masterful, brilliant conclusion to the saga. Considering their track record. Shrek wins in this regard. Phil Lord and Chris Miller have made nothing but stinkers too, the coworkers slop Cocaine Bear, the pro authoritarian Project Hail Mary, and…across. Shrek 5 has a story to tell, something profound to say about our culture, beyond wants your wallet.