Hopes for Film Discourse in 2023

I’m a big fan of Tik Tok and I find the movie discourse on there to be interesting enough but there are always ways to improve. So here are five ways in which I think film talk on the Tok could get better in the new year.

1) Never Mention Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a flawed metric in almost every way and I honestly don’t know if there’s ever a reason to reference it in a discussion.

2) Vocal Minorities Accept Their Position
As someone who often likes movies and music that don’t hit with the mainstream, I wish that people in the minority would accept that most people don’t like the art that they do. There’s nothing wrong with discussing the film and celebrating it but there’s a ton on Tik Tok of umbrage and defensiveness when people discover that the film they like isn’t exactly popular. And rarely, if ever, do I see people actually trying to figure out WHY the film didn’t hit with other people. When faced with an opposite view, the reaction on Tik Tok is to just double down on “It’s a classic!” rather than be inquisitive on why others didn’t like or even loathed something one loved. And there’s one response in particular to this that I’d love to never see again and that’s…

3) Stop Blaming Audiences
This goes beyond Tik Tok. We’ve seen directors and actors blame audiences for their films not doing well or being poorly received but it’s even worse on Tik Tok where people are constantly defending their own taste by trying to disparage or outright dismiss the tastes of others. It’s reductive, usually wrong, and has no real value in terms of discourse.

4) Less Debate, More Discussion
This is something that’s needed in all discourse. Debate is about winning an argument. Discussion is about uncovering a truth. In politics, discussion focuses on solving a problem while debate (which is all we ever get nowadays) is just grandstanding to make one look better. In a discussion, people consider what others think whereas in debate, it’s often just people repeating their points or knee jerk defending how they feel. Now, to be fair, I should probably listen to podcasts over Tik Tok if this is what I want but the podcast snippets I see on Tik Tok don’t exactly make it seem like discourse is better over there. I’d just love to see more back and forths, more Tik Toks asking questions than repeating opinions, etc. A lively discussion could also be a way to generate more content, which could help eliminate the last issue..

5) Fewer Top 10 lists
I get it. Lists are easy to do. (Even this one is guilty of ease over extensive discussion.) Lists are cheats for more engagement since all you need to do is put one wacky entry in your list and suddenly people will be compelled to comment or stitch your list. (This is basically the M.O. for all online lists nowadays.) But we’re getting to the point on Tik Tok that people are going to have to start going with “Best films that start with the letter Q” because everything else has been done. I just would love to see people put a little more thought into their content and maybe dive a little deeper into topics and come up with something better.