‘Self owns as a business model’: For some reason Matt Walsh is sharing critics’ brutal rejections of ‘Am I Racist?’
Critics essentially ignored Matt Walsh’s movie Am I Racist? and he is handling it well—as well as you’d expect from someone who would make a movie like this in the first place, anyway. In fact, he’s spiraling and posting all of the press email rejections he got in response to his movie.
Typically with press, we are invited to screenings, asked if we would like to cover a film, and even get to interview the creatives about their process. Of course, we can also turn that down if we’re not interested. Clearly, Walsh didn’t like that press was not interested in his movie and decided to clarify why his movie wasn’t being reviewed by mainstream critics, as though that indicates a problem with anyone but him.
First of all, buddy, you don’t have to clarify. It is because you are Matt Walsh and this is a movie for The Daily Wire. But still, he went on to post a whole thread about it. “Many have asked how it’s possible that our new film Am I Racist? hasn’t been reviewed by a single mainstream critic, even with a 99% audience score, a ‘Verified Hot’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a top 5 box office debut. Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes,” Walsh wrote.
He then went on to post an entire thread about all the responses he got from journalists telling him no. Buddy, why would you willingly give the internet this ammunition against you?! Was someone else using the shared Daily Wire brain cell that day?
One journalist said they’d have to strap them down like Alex in A Clockwork Orange to get them to watch it. That one really got me. Walsh’s thread led him to a deranged conclusion. “If Am I Racist? were terrible, these outlets could have reviewed it & trashed it. But the reality is they’re afraid of it.”
Why can’t these guys take the hint?
If I asked people to do something for me and all the responses were laughing in my face, not a soul would hear about it. I don’t even like talking about when I get denied something and I’m told it was a TIMING thing. That even makes me feel less than. But Matt Walsh is out here just tweeting about all the people who hate him with the schoolyard taunt that they must be “afraid.” He might want to consider that kind of reductive thinking is exactly why no one thinks his movie could possibly be interesting.
Or is this just a “See? My movie is good” pitch? Because that also is not the way to go about it. When you have only people who like you rating the movie, chances are you’re going to have a better score. And I mean, out of 10 critic reviews, 2 of them are still negative, despite most would-be negative reviewers taking themselves out of the running. That doesn’t exactly bode well for a larger group of people weighing in.
But also, it is well within our rights, as critics, to simply say no! Now, everyone is laughing at how funny critics can be when turning down someone as tiresome as this.
I tried to be professional in my own response to The Daily Wire emailing me.
At the end of the day, we don’t have to review movies. But Matt Walsh clearly has to self-own on the daily.
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