Cate Blanchett Says Male Film Critics Can View A Film Through A “Prism Of Misunderstanding”

“Ocean’s 8” currently sits at a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s enough for a “fresh” rating, but perhaps not as high as the studio or the stars of the film had hoped for. Well, if you talk to a couple of the actresses involved in the female-led heist film, they have an idea why that might be – a lack of diversity among the film critics.

The issue of white men dominating film criticism is a bit of a hot-button issue over the last week or so. Ever since a report was published that shined a light on the fact that white men make up the vast majority of critics on Rotten Tomatoes, people have been speaking out, hoping that more underrepresented people would get their chance to contribute to the film criticism conversation.

READ MORE: Sandra Bullock Says Actresses In The ‘Ghostbusters’ Reboot “Literally Walked Into A Firing Squad”

And during an interview recently (via Telegraph), Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, previously mentioned stars of “Ocean’s 8,” agree with that sentiment. “It would be nice if reviewers reflected who the film is for, like children should review children’s films, not a 60-year-old man,” said Bullock. “I guess his opinion would be kind of skewed.”

She continued, saying she would like there to be “balancing out the pool of critics so that it reflects the world we are in, like we are trying to reflect the world that I live in and my friends live in.”

“It’s not just all men. I love men, I want to be at the table with men but I also want to be invited to the table that the men are at”, she added. “I don’t know, but let’s see, let’s try it.”

READ MORE: ‘Ocean’s 8’ Is Familiar, But Still Sparkles With Cinematic Delights [Review]

When Blanchett was asked about if she believes Hollywood is getting better about featuring films that tell female stories, she continued the film criticism conversation by saying, “It’s Hollywood but it’s also the media, because a studio can support a film and it’s the invisible faces on the internet, and often male reviewers, who can view it through a prism of misunderstanding, and so I think that is a really big part of the equation.”

This idea that films should be reviewed by critics that are the target audience isn’t receiving universal praise, however. On social media, the discussion has been varied, with many stating that diversity is needed but Bullock and Blanchett’s assertion that certain films should be reviewed by certain people isn’t the answer.

Film critic Alison Willmore summed it up on Twitter, saying, “Maybe reviews of OCEAN’S 8 would have skewed more positive if it’d been majority women-identifying critics reviewing it. Maybe not! If you need to erase the opinions of female critics who didn’t like it in order to make this argument, it’s not a good one. Women aren’t monolithic!”

She added, “’This movie isn’t for you’ is the same argument an angry teen boy uses when telling me why I shouldn’t get to weigh in on SUICIDE SQUAD. It’s also an argument whose end point is that there should never be bad reviews, because that just means the critic wasn’t the right audience.”

Clearly, this is a conversation that will continue in the days to come.

It sucks that so many of the reviews for WRINKLE IN TIME were from white men. It also sucks that so many of the reviews for DUNKIRK were. Criticism is not better for coming from such a narrow selection of people, on all movies

— Alison Willmore / alisonwillmore.bsky.social (@alisonwillmore) June 15, 2018

Maybe reviews of OCEAN'S 8 would have skewed more positive if it'd been majority women-identifying critics reviewing it. Maybe not! If you need to erase the opinions of female critics who didn't like it in order to make this argument, it's not a good one. Women aren't monolithic!

— Alison Willmore / alisonwillmore.bsky.social (@alisonwillmore) June 15, 2018

The push for greater diversity in criticism should come on the basis that more people from more backgrounds should be heard weighing in on a film, not on people arguing their movie obvi would have done better critically — you can't know that and it shouldn't matter

— Alison Willmore / alisonwillmore.bsky.social (@alisonwillmore) June 15, 2018

"This movie isn't for you" is the same argument an angry teen boy uses when telling me why I shouldn't get to weigh in on SUICIDE SQUAD. It's also an argument whose end point is that there should never be bad reviews, because that just means the critic wasn't the right audience

— Alison Willmore / alisonwillmore.bsky.social (@alisonwillmore) June 15, 2018