As 2022 ends, publications far and wide have been busy sharing lists of their favourite media projects for the year.
But one particular year-end list from Variety has caused a stir online, with two of the entertainment publication’s critics naming and shaming what they consider to be ‘The Worst Films of 2022’.
The list has angered fans and Hollywood professionals – including Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood – who panned the list as “unnecessary” and “gross practice”.
Biting reviews
Variety released its list of the ‘Best Films of 2022’ earlier this month, with film critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge tasked with selecting the honourees.
Tár starring Cate Blanchett, The Batman, The Fabelmans and Bros earned glowing praise from the reviewers.
But this positive list was quickly followed by a scathing ‘Worst Films’ list, in which Gleiberman and Debruge did not hold back.
The most controversial review was Gleiberman’s assessment of Bones and All – an independent horror-filled love story about two young people travelling across the US, drawn to each other by their shared cannibalistic tendencies.
Based on an original novel of the same name, the film has a strong and outspoken fanbase, in part thanks to heart-throb Timothée Chalamet’s role.
And while Bones and All is certainly open to criticism (as is any film), Gleiberman’s review was particularly savage.
Readers accused Gleiberman of body-shaming, as he closed off his review with a comment about Chalamet’s body.
“We have more than enough time to gawk at the oversize holes in Chalamet’s jeans, which reveal a set of bones nearly as bare as the script.”
Tweet from @elijahwood
‘Gross practice’
The review drew criticism from all corners of Hollywood, including from Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood.
Given these films were absent from the reviewers’ ‘Best Films’ list, Wood said the list was “unnecessary” and uncalled for.
“When a film doesn’t appear on Best Of list, it’s logical to assume it wasn’t as beloved. This is an unnecessary and gross practice,” he tweeted in response to Variety’s post.
Wood’s reply received an epic ‘ratio’. His tweet drew more than 13,000 likes, while Variety’s original tweet has just short of 900.
The article also drew criticism for slam-dunking Bones and All, considering it’s a small indie project and wasn’t necessarily geared for mass appeal.
“That ‘worst of’/hating on movies list from Variety makes me think if the people who wrote unnecessarily cruel/pointed meanness towards micro-budget indies, reviews of the film I shot with my father which we worked really damn hard on,” LA-based cinematographer Tara Violet said.
Film buff Sean Abley was similarly unimpressed: “As a person who has both made films and written reviews, I can tell you that it takes 100 times more effort to make even the worst movie than it does to watch and write about it.”
“What toxic garbage this list is @Variety.”
Spider-Man comic book writer Dan Slott pleaded with Variety to “please stop”.
“Making a movie is hard work. It requires time and heart from so many people. Worst lists are mean spirited and cruel.”
Tweet from @GayoftheDead
Tweet from @DanSlott
Others pointed out the irony of Variety‘s criticism, given the publication named Bones and All the ‘Best Horror Movie of 2022’ just one day later.
“Bones and All topping Variety‘s list of Best Horror Movies of the year today is wild after they put it on the list of worst films of 2022 yesterday,” one Twitter user wrote.
“I get there are different critics working for the same trade but maybe some more coherent editorial line wouldn’t be bad?”
Gleiberman and Debruge appear to have addressed the wave of criticism in the article’s introduction, and they insist they are unbothered by the mounting backlash.
“When film critics hand out negative judgments, we’re often called ‘mean.’ And if that were actually the case, our list of the year’s worst movies would be the meanest thing we do,” they wrote.
“Yet where the word mean suggests an element of malice, we like to think that this particular occasion for insult and invective isn’t really about us. It’s about movies that were, in fact, so bad that they almost challenged us to describe all the ways they went so wrong.
“If you think we’re mean, then so be it. We’d like to think we’re just accurate.”
Worst of the worst
It wasn’t only Bones and All in the firing line.
Gleiberman tore David O Russell’s 2022 film Amsterdam to shreds, calling it “paralyzingly, head-scratchingly WTF incoherent”.
O’Russell had an A-list cast to work with that included Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert de Niro and Taylor Swift, to name a few.
But even with such star power, Gleiberman said Amsterdam still managed to be a bore.
Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth instalment in the Despicable Me franchise, was called a “cash cow that’s being milked dry” – though there was little online protest to that assessment.
Netflix also copped criticism from Debruge, who tore into its 2022 films Blonde and Spiderhead.
He said Blonde, a retelling of Marilyn Monroe’s tragic life story, was “one dimensional” and painted an “ugly, ungenerous portrait” of the blonde bombshell.
Debruge also called out Spiderhead director Joseph Kosinski for miscasting Chris Hemsworth as a mad scientist.
He also said the film would have been better off as a low-key indie, rather than making it a big-budget Netflix blockbuster.
