Ansel Elgort took to Instagram yesterday to argue the case for his new film “The Goldfinch” after its near across the board critical panning.
The “Baby Driver” star plays Theo Decker, a boy taken in by a wealthy family following the tragic death off his mother. The film is based off the bestselling novel by Donna Tartt, however, its adaptation to the big screen has left critics hugely unimpressed, sitting at 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and a measly 40 on Metacritic, with the majority of reviews calling the film ‘fragmented’ at best.
And whilst Elgort acknowledged that all the reviews are “great articles”, he also believes critics have “decided that pointing out everything wrong with the film is the best way to write their reviews’.”
And whilst its critical scores sit far lower than Amazon and Warner Bros would have hoped for, its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (a score always to be taken with a pinch of salt) sits at 73%, which although to a much lesser extent than we’ve seen over the past year (considering the film has only grossed $4M since its September 13th release) opens up the discussion again on audiences versus critics, a ‘battle’ seen most notably toward the end of 2018, in which both Sony’s “Venom,” and Fox’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” boasted only 35 and 49 Metascores and 29% and 61% critical scores on Rotten Tomatoes, but obtained 80% and 86% audience scores. And whilst both also grossed over $700M worldwide, a world away from Elgort’s new film, it does offer the suggestion that audiences and critics may be drifting apart year on year.
Either way, if you’re one of the seemingly limited amounts of people that have seen “The Goldfinch,” and enjoyed it, or hated it, then good. This is an industry built on opinions and subjectivity and without these types of clashes criticism wouldn’t exist. Though don’t tell Ansel Elgort’s Mother you didn’t like her son’s new film, as according to the actor “She really liked this one” and was moved by it. Here’s to you Mrs Elgort.