The 5 Most Overrated Films of the year so far

Overrated movies are a dime a dozen – critics and audiences can massively differ on a movie, or it can be championed for values which have nothing to do with its objective qualities (like meme-value, or politicization), or maybe it deals with themes that are considered “relevant” and therefore must be good.

I truly hate movies that get overrated and over-praised for these factors, because they suck the diversity out of an industry. Praising a movie for irrelevant qualities will lead to more people gearing around those strategies of empty films, leaving audiences ultimately less satisfied in the long run, and others creatively stifled. Movies like Drive, or TV shows like Watchmen, gain points from critics for fitting unnatural standards of art, leading to copycats and a general drop in quality in the industry that I hold truly dear.

So these following films are overrated for a number of reasons, but I think that it is truly important that the key message of this article is that you don’t support them. Audiences in seats are what matter, not what critics have to say (ironic that I am a critic saying that, but the point still stands).

Ammonite

Why it was so praised: Francis Lee’s follow-up to his critical hit God’s Own Country was another gay English country drama, this time focusing on a relationship between Mary Shelley (Kate Winslet) and a disaffected middle-class lady (Saoirse Ronan) who comes to stay with her. Critics gave it high marks for its production values, performances and for the idea showing a deep, emotional period romance, focusing on intimacy and human connection in a figure not covered much in history as Anning.

Why it’s overrated: While critics were giving it absolute acclaim and positive reviews, the audience (whose Metacritic score is currently a nice 6.9/10) aren’t so positive. Most point to Ammonite’s slow-as-hell runtime and stately presentation as dry and flaky, lacking the energy in other romances to really hook the viewer.

What I think truly sinks this film is how truly lifeless it is – Winslet and Ronan have really no chemistry whatsoever as a convincing couple, no humour, or mutual admiration, or anything of the sort. Both of them – in spite of the actresses’ valiant efforts – come off as simply two depressed lesbians, and nothing more.

This movie needs so much more than just sadness and lesbianism to be interesting – there needs to be happiness before the over-choreographed sex scenes, there needs to be relatability to go into a seaside couples swim. There needs to be a flat-out iota of chemistry before this romance can be believable. Critics found joy in the idea of the movie, but didn’t seem to care about the drywall experience of actually watching the movie.

Black Widow

Why it was so praised: Marvel fans have been crowing for a Black Widow movie for over a decade, and now it has happened, people seem to be generally loving it. A lot of people point to a film full of loveable performances (especially by Florence Pugh and David Harbour), a mature exploration of the darker themes of the Black Widow character, and a generally fun action film with nice choreography and plentiful humour. Even the audience seems to be on board, with a shocking 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Why it’s overrated: That rating is not reliable. Since Captain Marvel was subject to “review-bombing” (in fact, many legitimate negative reviews inflated by a relative minority of toxic reviews), Rotten Tomatoes change of policy generally removes many posts which they consider toxic, including negative reviews of large-scale properties like Marvel films. And that clearly happened here, because I genuinely believe that Black Widow is the worst MCU film so far – clumsy, dull and annoying.

So the three points I covered for why this movie was praised were the performances, the exploration of mature themes, and the action sequences. For the performances, I’ve seen many positive reviews on Letterboxd where the review is less focused on the film and more on the meme of the performers in it (many are simply thirst posts about David Harbour and Rachel Weisz). Simply put, these performances are not worth the praise they receive – they’re standard MCU performances, with an emotional flatness grounding out any unsafe material.

In regard to its themes, Black Widow’s exploration is laughably simplistic, simply expressing it all in a villain monologue and expecting many fans and critics to make up the themes that they actually believe to be there. The script of this movie isn’t an exploration of child abuse or family drama – it’s a stupid MCU script, filled with plot holes, terrible dialogue and infuriating fan-service. Anything mature is stapled on and committee-written as a billboard more than an actual expression of art.

In terms of action, this is the worst that the MCU has ever gotten – action is full of stupid logic leaps, horribly choreographed, awfully edited and ludicrously anti-climactic. It’s a true textbook on how not to do action, combined with things people have complained about for years like the innocent protagonist slaughtering hundreds of innocent people in their noble quest.

But bringing any of these issues up gets copyright stricken, condemned and criticised. Black Widow’s hubris and concept leads an armada of people imagining that the film will be great around it, leaving it invulnerable to legitimate criticism. Truly, it annoys me.

I Care a Lot

Following a con artist who sequesters guardianship for elderly people and then steals their assets, I Care A Lot is (supposedly) a dark comedy about the state of late-stage capitalism and the devious nature of those in business, as well as a girl-boss lesbian female empowerment film starring Rosamund Pike.

Why it was praised: I Care a Lot drew lavish praise for its style, its commentary and for Rosamund Pike’s Golden Globe-winning performance. Many wrote it as a searing critique of American business, fuelled by “ice-pick” dark comedy and a “girl-boss” mentality that seared into the mind of the viewer. For many, this was the ultimate critique that they had been waiting for.

Why it’s overrated: I Care a Lot was also savaged by audiences (currently sitting at 3.1/10 on Metacritic) and several right-wing outlets (obviously). Many pointed to its protagonist, who they considered so vile as to be impossible to relate to, as well as its dark and seemingly impenetrable themes. For me, truly the reason I Care a Lot does not deserve its praise isn’t because its exploration of capitalism is too searing or too sadistic – the problem is that there is no exploration at all.

None.

This movie wants you to believe it’s The Big Short, full of dark observations and gleeful commentary, but nothing about that is true. This is not a comedy at all, merely aping the appearance of one as to appear hip and relevant, but instead coming off as cynical.

By the end of the film, you will have learned nothing about capitalism, about the mob, about elder abuse, or about anything at all. Instead, you’re scratching your head at a plot hole-infested, utterly confounding, intensely smug movie that willingly coasts on Rosamund Pike’s ice-cold gay girl-boss of a con artist.

That’s another thing – if this movie were not about lesbians or didn’t have random speeches about how men are bad, I have no doubt that it would be received much less positively and gotten less attention. I Care a Lot gives the sheen of themes of female empowerment and stability, but it’s a smokescreen to cover up the vapidity of everything that happens in this movie. It adds up to the feeling that I Care a Lot is like a Call of Duty game, giving the appearance of searing themes of war and violence, but in reality applying only to lowest-common-denominator politicisation fronts who probably never needed this film in the first place to criticise the issues this film presents.

Malcolm and Marie

An argument between two lovers over one night covering race, moviemaking, love and a bunch of Bachelor of Arts stuff.

Why it was praised: Divisive it may be, but those who love Malcolm and Marie LOVE it. The two central performances of Zendaya and John David Washington are marvellous, the exploration of so many themes is handled so deftly, the black-and-white cinematography is beautiful, the classical music score is lovely, the dialogue is zing-a-ding-ding…that’s what many say.

Why it’s overrated: Malcolm and Marie violates the cardinal sin of thematic art – simply having a theme isn’t enough, it needs to be entertaining and engaging. Director Sam Levinson is so willing to drag this film out with endless conversations and arguments, dialogue referencing race and the art of moviemaking and random sexualisation, that he completely forgets to make the film engrossing.

The repetitive structure of the movie – couple argues, then has sex, then argues again, eats something/each other – gets doled out so many times that the audience is tired of it halfway through the film as yet another relevant issue is smacked down on the table in front of them. This is not aided by the two lead characters, who are written as incredibly unlikeable and flawed as to emphasise these thematic elements, but who ultimately alienate the audience.

Levinson’s direction – trying to emulate classic drama scripts like John Cassavetes or Mike Nichols – comes off as forced and weirdly indifferent, adding little claustrophobia or emotion to the scene and relying on the black-and-white cinematography to give the illusion of artistic value. It compiles and compiles the feeling of aimlessness in the script, meaning that all arguments feel invalid or irrelevant and the only things people remember are the many close-ups of Zendaya’s ass.

Worst of all, I came out of Malcolm and Marie not knowing what it was even about. It feels like a movie where the reviewers are expected to take 10 pages of notes per scene, instead of a concise and smart movie where the meaning can be interpreted without having to go back and point out the hypocrisy in this specific rant out of hundreds. It’s an illusion of intelligence by simply throwing everything at the viewer and expecting that to mean meaningful content.

The White Tiger

The ruthless rise of a man from an illiterate Indian villager to the top of the food chain in the top dog in the businessworld of the city.

Why it was praised: Receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, The White Tiger drew rave reviews for its darkness and bleak tone, alongside a breakout performance from Adarsh Gourav as the eponymous rare jewel who beats the odds through ruthlessness and trickery. With an impressive 90%+ score on Rotten Tomatoes, this seemed to be one of the top early contenders of 2021’s best film.

Why it’s overrated: Simply put, The White Tiger skims over the most interesting part of the story – how this boy became a businessman – in a 2-minute montage, spending the vast majority of its runtime focusing on the boy’s employment as a servant in a slow, boring stupor. It feels like it’s focusing on the completely wrong element as implied by its title – a white tiger should be constantly ruthless and conniving in its role as king, but this spends way too much time depicting its protagonist as a mere antelope, making his tiger dress far less convincing.

The movie’s attempts at establishing a dark tone and depicting its scenarios as cruel, horrid and absurd fall short, as it feels like the movie is too afraid to actually acknowledge the darker aspects at its core. It’s rated MA15+ for strong violence, but a PG movie set in India like Lion depicts the harshness and hell of the environment many times more intensely than The White Tiger ever does, as The White Tiger lacks the characterisation or imagination of Lion.

For all the effort given by the performers, for whatever harshness actually inspired this book, for whatever slickness director Ramin Bahrani throws at the screen, The White Tiger misses the most interesting part of itself – a white tiger. It’s run-of-the-mill, missing its truly unique factor, and glossing over its most interesting parts in montages so it can focus on superficial cruelty. I can’t recommend it to you in spite of its efforts.

Truly, the common element throughout all of these overrated movies is thematic – they give the illusion of engaging with intense themes, but back out of it at the last minute, or ignore the most interesting part of each theme. Themes are there instead of entertainment, or used as a smokescreen to avoid criticism, and is a major element of how films can be overrated. I hope that people reading this understand the key idea of thematic interaction with the other elements of writing.

So those are my opinions on the 5 most overrated films of this year – what do you think? Leave your answers in the comments below.