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Monday, April 04, 2011
How to review something
My admiration for Ebert’s abilities shows little bounds. I saw a movie on DVD recently, a European period piece, one that I quite enjoyed, but got only a 6.9 from IMDB’s readers and 29% from Rotten Tomatoes’ critics (and 59% from their readers). I think Ebert (who gave it three stars) summed it up well, and I think it’s appropriate beyond just movies:
Sometimes I wonder if critics aren’t reviewing the film they would have preferred rather than the one the director made.
Don’t project your views, your biases, your standards as if those are somehow better or more appropriate given the context that someone else finds himself in.
We got a few criticisms in The Book. One was the use of wOBA instead of batting average. That I think was a huge signal that the reader was simply unwilling to set aside his prejudice, and simply accept that wOBA is what was needed in the context of the book. It’s important that you simply check your priors at the door, and let the director, artist, writer, or whoever take you into his world. Well, at least one that you trust enough to let him do that. And if you are unwilling to do so, then state so up front.
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