Ostensibly, Heckler is a documentary about heckling, opening with a segment featuring comedians like David Cross, Patton Oswalt and Maria Bamford sharing horror stories about drunken assholes in comedy clubs. But then the film shifts focus, making the specious arguments that critics, specifically film critics, are basically hecklers, speaking to actors and filmmakers who have had terrible experiences with negative reviews. Scary Movie 3 screenwriter Craig Mazin laments that “nothing is good enough” for critics, except perhaps for critically-acclaimed series such as Chernobyl and The Last of Us, which he would eventually helm.
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
The doc does admittedly touch on some interesting points about unnecessarily cruel criticism. Carrie Fisher talks about misogynistic Star Wars reviews, and George Lucas drops this nugget of wisdom:
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Also, the film’s segment about anonymous blogging somewhat anticipates the full-on toxicity of the social media era. But it soon becomes clear that this is mostly just about Kennedy’s hurt feelings, as he visits critics who panned movies like Son of the Mask and Malibu’s Most Wanted and takes them to task for their dislike of his terrible body of work. After like an hour of complaining that critics are unnecessarily cruel and wildly hyperbolic, he starts ruthlessly mocking his critics on camera using wild hyperbole.
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
He even takes Roeper to task for his Son of the Mask opinions.
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
Hopefully, Kennedy will never make Son of Heckler, all about the critical response to the film Roe v Wade.
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