Critic Confessions: Just Do Your Bleepin’ Job
Too many movie reviewers let their biases blind them to art
I’ll be blunt. I loathe Hannah Einbinder’s politics.
The “Hacks” alum isn’t just progressive in the traditional sense. She’s rabidly pro-Palestine, ignoring so much of what makes that movement toxic. Oh, and she has helped peddle the “very fine people” hoax.
And, when I reviewed Einbinder’s latest film, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” I raved about her performance.
This isn’t complicated. Movie critics can have every feeling possible about an artist’s personal and professional life. It’s impossible to erase our ideological preferences while watching a film, but you do your best to acknowledge them while judging a film.
When art hits the screen, that’s what matters for a movie review. You’re a surrogate for the reader, helping them avoid bad movies and seek out the best of the best.
It’s not complicated.
So why are so many movie critics tripping up on it? Here’s the opening of The Hollywood Reporter’s review of “Confession.” Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire fame wrote the screenplay.
Reviewing the new movie scripted by Ben Shapiro, I’m tempted to pan it on ideological grounds. The screenwriter, after all, is the controversial right-wing political commentator who co-founded The Daily Wire and was editor-at-large at Breitbart News for several years. To say that the vast majority of his views are loathsome to me is an understatement.
As luck would have it, the critic trashed the film based on its content alone.
Phew! What are the odds?
Now, do you think said critic gave the movie a fair shot? We’ve seen variations on this theme for a while now. Pro-life movies have little chance of getting positive reviews.
Pro-choice movies? Rave after rave.
The dilemma has deep ideological roots, too. The 2024 biopic “Reagan’s” Rotten Tomatoes split couldn’t be more revealing.
Crunch the movie review numbers for a Michael Moore movie versus documentaries from Dinesh D’Souza and see the chasm between the two. The problem isn’t new.
It might be getting worse, though.
Consider the critical reaction to Johnny Depp’s first major film role in years. He stars in “Ebenezer,” the umpteenth retelling of “A Christmas Carol.”
The film took first place over the weekend at the box office. The CinemaScore stands at a solid “A-.” Critics, however, were less than impressed. The critics? 54 percent “rotten.” The general audience? 90 percent “fresh.”
It goes deeper.
The Hollywood Reporter (again) shared how critics were struggling to review “Ebenezer” based on its star’s personal history. Depp was accused of physical abuse by his then-partner Amber Heard.
Their battle raged in the courts, and by all accounts Depp emerged victorious. Yet critics are still holding his alleged indiscretions against him.
Nearly every critic reviewing Ebenezer seems to be finding their way around the same question: How do we feel, exactly, about Johnny Depp starring in a major studio film once again?
Did he rob a bank? Kick a nun down the stairs? Misgender a trans athlete?
What about the actors who have been accused of other sins? Ezra Miller, for example? We don’t recall similar handwringing over Miller’s “Flash” update.
There’s more. The story quotes several reviewers who can’t process Depp’s film without exhuming the allegations against him. Allegations, mind you. Here’s The Boston Globe rage reviewing his performance.
“Under all that makeup, Depp is easily the worst Scrooge I’ve ever seen. His performance is a soulless, hollow shell, never once convincing us of Scrooge’s miserly rage or his ultimate redemption. There isn’t an ounce of humanity in this performance; it may as well have been generated with AI.”
Film Threat’s Chris Gore fired back.
@THR Applying purity tests to
talent and filmmakers is tricky when almost everyone in this business is a degenerate. Maybe just review the movie based on the movie itself.— Chris Gore (@ThatChrisGore) November 14, 2026
Maybe that’s why Paramount kept such a tight review embargo on the title.
Paramount is not allowing reviews for #Ebenezer to be published until TWO HOURS before first US shows begin!
THU NOV 12 schedule:
12pm ET – review embargo lifts
2pm ET – pre-shows begin https://t.co/ok2YZtkZ8E— Gitesh Pandya (@GiteshPandya) November 11, 2026
Media bias has soured many consumers from Legacy Media reportage. Film critics risk the same alienation by letting outside factors corrupt their critiques.
Just review the movie. Thanks.