On the art (and ethics) of writing negative reviews

Negative reviews are fun to read—just asks the scores of film fans that have purchased Roger Ebert’s bestselling collection of them, I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie . Truth is, they can be very fun to write , too, at least for a critic who finds cathartic pleasure in chronicling their own torturous experience with a bad movie, book, meal, etc. But there is an art to penning a pan—and maybe a code of conduct the critic should follow, lest scathing analysis shade into mean-spirited invective. On this week’s very inside-baseball episode of Film Club , critics A.A. Dowd and Katie Rife take the listener behind the curtain of their critical process and discuss how to write about bad movies right. Visit: Like: Follow: See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .

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On the art (and ethics) of writing negative reviews is an episode from The A.V. Club Presents Film Club by The A.V. Club.

This episode is 01:20:18 long.

This episode was published on Aug 6, 2021.

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