This weeks topic is focussed on “the remix”. Remixes have been consistently popular for almost a century, and the ethical questions have  continued to arise. People often question the moral rightness of taking someones work and using it for your own profit. Yet it is my belief that in this modern day and age, film “review” culture is much more critical, stigmatizing and negatively impacting on the creation of art than remix culture ever could be.

Here are some reasons why:

Remixes aim to celebrate previous work. 

Whilst a remix reworks previous art and employs and celebrates its content, a review instead aims to pull it apart. A remix of a song celebrates the talent and hard work of the previous creator by using his work as samples. Yet when you consider someone reviewing the original song, only the final product is what they deliberate on.

Remixes work around the flaws of the original artifact. 

The beauty of a remix and its possibilities, is that it can eliminate flaws of the original artifact, and instead improve it, generating a new appreciation. Yet when you look at how a critic will look at a film, they will only review the finished product, and can’t see “working around” the flaws (from their perspective) as a possibility.

Review culture allows personal bias to have an impact. 

When a critic is looking at a film, their opinion and experience can be influenced by a variety of factors, perhaps they don’t like the cast, or don’t agree with its message, or hate the cinema they saw it in. For example, due to the scandalous allegations surrounding him, a number of film reviewers could hold an active dislike for Woody Allen when they watch one of his films, and this could impact their overall experience. I believe there is no greater example of this than in Birdman, where we see the villainous theatre critic Tabitha Dickinson, be influenced by her own personal dislike of Riggan Thompson’s hollywood past, when she tells him “I’m gonna kill your play”.