The Critic Review
We are back with another indie(?) film review and this time we’re talking about The Critic. It’s funny to call this an indie film with a studio as big as Lionsgate attached to the production, but this is by no means a blockbuster – the amount of smaller studios attached to the project is very large and their introductions take up about 5 minutes before the movie starts. This thriller about an uptight, brutally honest critic is definitely an acquired taste, but I expect a lot of people will see it due to Sir Ian McKellen being our main character.
In this review, I will be brutally honest, but not quite as McKellen was in this film! In Nerdy Nook fashion, this will be completely spoiler free.
The Review
Image by True Brit Entertainment
As the title would suggest, The Critic is about a theatre critic who works for a newspaper called The Chronicle. After the death of the papers owner, his son takes over the company, Erskine fears for his career at the paper since he and the new owner (David Brooke) do not see eye to eye. So in a shocking twist of events Erskine takes to blackmailing his boss to save his career.
When you see the name Sir Ian McKellen, you do not exactly think ‘indie thriller about a critic’, however as I mentioned in the intro, I believe there will be a lot of people upon release who will see this purely for Ian McKellen – those people might be greatly disappointed. If there is anything this film taught me, it’s the importance of honesty whilst giving credit where credit is due.
Sir Ian McKellen did a great job in his role as critic Jimmy Erskine, and the supporting actors did an equally great job, especially with conveying the complex and conflicting emotions of being someone connected to Erksine. One character in particular who stood out was David Brooke, played by Mark Strong. His character was very believable and, despite having quite a small screen time, showed such a depth of emotion I actually felt so sorry for him in the end.
Image by True Brit Entertainment
There were some darker undertones which added further intensity to the movie, though sometimes it was unnecessary. There was one point which caught me off guard where Erskine was asked if his Black associate, Tom Turner (played by Harry Potter alumni, Alfred Enoch) was ‘bought’ which at the time this movie set in made sense as racism was much more prominent than today’s times, though it felt wildly unnecessary considering nothing like that was ever alluded to again. The homophobic undertones however were very impactful.
The Critics biggest downfall was unfortunately the pacing. Though the story was pretty solid, the timing was god awful. There was this slow build up the entire movie which was mostly enjoyable, then suddenly in the last 20 minutes everything gets very dramatic very quickly only to end in a very unsatisfying way.
Image by True Brit Entertainment
I will say I found it amusing that this film would more than likely be described as abysmal by McKellen’s character. The Critic had so much potential to be a good film, only to be let down by its own pacing – it would’ve been much more enjoyable if they sped up the rest of the plot a little to slow down the end.
Despite what I did not like about this movie, I can see it being enjoyed by thriller fans. It’s not something I would have chosen to see usually but I am still glad we did and I could definitely see the potential it had, I just don’t think overall I was the target audience and that’s ok! So if you are a fan of thrillers, go and see it when it releases on September 13th.
Aramis Mason
I’m Aramis! A life long comic book fan and Twitch Partner. I first learnt SEO in 2020 writing articles to help other streamers, but have now decided to put those skills to good use, with my wife and our friend, for Nerdy Nook.
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