THE LL WORD

Contributing editor LEILA LATIF has something to say…

Kumail Nanjiani in Eternals. The actor revealed he needed therapy after poor reviews

Putting art out into the world takes courage, and in some ways, every film review should come with a disclaimer that regardless of quality, ‘They made a film, and that’s great!’

As critics, we seek to help people engage with cinema more meaningfully and to champion hidden gems, but I couldn’t live with the guilt of encouraging people to fork out for a miserable time at the cinema. Even if everyone involved was genuinely trying their best.

Even so, it doesn’t feel great to hear about Kumail Nanjiani’s experience with the poor reviews of Eternals (2021), telling Michael Rosenbaum on his podcast: ‘The reviews were bad and I was too aware of it. I was reading every review and checking too much.’ His wife, Emily V. Gordon, who he co-wrote the glowingly reviewed The Big Sick with, is a trained therapist, and Nanjiani revealed that she encouraged him into counselling. ‘Emily says that I do have trauma from it,’ he said.

The idea of my own two-star review of Eternals (admittedly one where I said Nanjiani was the highlight) hurting him is horrible to consider, and a successful actor’s bank account and access to therapy doesn’t shield them from mental-health struggles. And yet, there I was a week after his podcast, reviewing another Hollywood movie, saying an actor was ‘upstaged by a bad wig’.

In my defence (not that anyone could defend that wig), if we are going to be effusive with our praise – and I consider myself a generous film critic – we have to be able to call out when audiences should give a film a wide berth. We do this work because we love cinema; we think it can change lives and make us better, more empathetic people, and if people are disappointed time and time again by a trip to a multiplex, they will stop going and the whole industry will wither. But there are (self-imposed) rules around a bad review. For one thing, I wouldn’t write anything sexist, racist or ableist. I approach every film in good faith and want it to be a masterpiece, and I don’t hold a film’s low budget against it.

But really bad reviews are fun to read and, admittedly, they’re fun to write. The English language is filled with glorious ways to express disappointment and there’s a level of creative freedom. I’ve seen bad reviews in the form of poems, personal essays on existential dread, and one that was partly unintelligible because the critic smashed their fist into the keyboard in fury.

They can become unbearably gleeful and smug, but being funny is one of the most significant skills a writer can have, and we want to make our readers smile. If you’ve had to sit through Jared Leto’s performance in Morbius, then giggling at the jokes you come up with about his line delivery of ‘the pretty little stinky pinky’ seems like a just reward.

But more than anything, when I write, I think of what Dame Emma Thompson said when I watched her receive an award from the London Critics’ Circle. She explained how the work critics do is valuable and our praise has helped her smaller projects reach audiences. We’ve helped shape her career by letting her know when she was on the right path. Still, she never reads the reviews, not even the glowing ones, in case there’s one word that makes her feel self-conscious and less brave as a performer.

So please, Kumail, take Dame Emma’s advice and don’t read them whether they’re bad or good. You still were courageous to put your creativity on show. You made a film, and that’s great!

LEILA WILL BE BACK NEXT ISSUE. FOR FURTHER MUSINGS AND MISSIVES FOLLOW @LEILA_LATIF ON X/TWITTER.