Making art is difficult. It takes passion, commitment, a point-of-view, but to actually get it seen and appreciated by others as is often the artist’s intent, it also takes critics lifting it up and voicing support for it. However, in the age of social media and streaming — which often values quantity over quality — it’s simultaneously made it easier for consensus to be formed, eliminating the importance of the critic, and more difficult for each piece of art to be given a chance to find its audience.
One star who understands the shift that’s occurred in recent decades is “Running Point” star Kate Hudson, as she came up in rom-coms at a time when critics were tearing the genre apart. For Hudson though, these types of films aren’t meant to be parsed through as critics are known to do.
“I think the critic has changed,” Hudson said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I think in the movie world, critics who are looking at things with a certain microscope might sometimes not be looking at it as what people need. The critic has changed, meaning the whole world is a critic now.”
In a way, with everyone able to platform their thoughts nowadays, no singular perspective holds all that much value, so for Hudson, the only viewpoint that matters is her own.
“When you’re making a movie to feel a certain way, I call it a spectrum: Who are you making them for? Are you making it for the critic? Are you making it for the people?” she said. “You try to make the best movie possible, telling the story that you’re trying to tell. If you’re trying to think about it as who you’re trying to please, you’re probably going to miss.”
Because rom-coms have often gotten a bad wrap in recent years, many studios have accepted that they aren’t the kind of mass-appeal product they used to be and therefore don’t seem to be putting too much care into developing them. The irony with this laissez-faire attitude is that the talent who might help elevate these stories are no longer interested in being a part of them.
“It starts with a great story,” Hudson told EW. “If you’re not grounding these stories and they’re not well-crafted, they’re just not going to stand the test of time. Anybody who’s ever been in one that has that generation after generation connectivity where people actually go back and it still resonates with them, it’s because the writing was really good. I’d love to pat myself on the back, but it’s really the writing.”
Speaking to IndieWire’s Proma Khosla ahead of the release of her sports comedy “Running Point” on Netflix, creator Mindy Kaling echoed Hudson’s sentiments by acknowledging that many viewers nowadays miss having light material that pulls them out of whatever funk the real world puts them into.
“I think that life is hard for people, like the average American,” said Kaling. “They go to work and it’s tough, and they come home and they want to watch something that is going to make them laugh and take them away from their problems. I’ve always felt that way. That’s how I approach my work, just write something that is incredibly entertaining and takes you away from whatever you’re facing.”
“Running Point” is currently streaming on Netflix.
