Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/why-film-companion-will-not-have-stars-ratings-in-movie-reviews-baradwaj-rangan/
We think it’s time we stopped trying to reduce our thoughts on films (i.e. our reviews) to a bunch of stars.
It took a star to take out the stars. The former is Shah Rukh Khan, who gently railed against the latter, today’s near-ubiquitous system of rating a movie. Films aren’t hotels, he said, at the first annual Film Critics Guild awards night. Some of us squirmed. He’s so right. The review’s headline is itself an instant summation of what the critic thought about a film. Take Kalank. The headline for Anupama Chopra’s review was: “The Artificiality Works Because The Emotions Feel Real”. The headline for Rahul Desai’s review went: “The Film Is Consumed By Its Commitment To Beauty And Boredom”. That’s all the reader requires, really. Anupama kinda-sorta liked the film, so if you use her as your guide to movie-watching, then maybe you want to give Kalank a shot. Or if Rahul is your go-to critic for movie-related decisions, then maybe you want to skip it. How does the additional aspect of a star rating add any value? You know Anupama’s verdict. You know Rahul’s verdict. Why do you actually need to see this verdict in the form of stars?
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Vishakha
May 3, 2019
Have always read your reviews for the joy of reading them..even all the tamil (and now telugu and kannada) movies knowing that the probability of me seeing them was very low.
Never once checked the star ratings..
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bellurramki
May 3, 2019
you will get some STARes for this stance.
some will be STARtled but this is a good STARt from FC! kudos!
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Guru
May 3, 2019
Good decision ! I usually do not look at the stars at the end of your review, and that’s not a criteria for me to watch or not watch a movie.
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Thupparivaalan
May 3, 2019
I can live without the star rating. I can’t say the same for the other people who read your reviews anyway. For people who are not interested in the review and want a cutthroat answer to watchability of a movie, can look at star ratings elsewhere. There are plenty of other options available for them like Newspapers and Youtube reviews.
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bart
May 3, 2019
Side note: Saar, Idhukkellam munnodi, Blue sattai Maran. Avar stars koduthadhe illa (if he gives, it might be, oru chee, rendu chee, thooo and so on)..
On the other hand Panda (itisprashanth) gives exact integer marks these days – 63/100 and so on. His skill appreciation hasn’t been fine-tuned yet to provide accuracy in decimals…
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krishna prasad
May 3, 2019
I think when one reads a review, one of course looks for the what and how’s of the movie. But that’s not the end point. I think what differentiates people like BR, S Shivakumar who writes for the The Hindu, Nirmal Shekar( sports journalist who used to write, again for the Hindu ) are their usage of language, something extra that they add to the whole narrative which makes reading joyous. There are n number of people masquerading as reviewers and sports journos when al that they do is just tell out the story or who scored how much etc for which we actually need not read the article. Sorry for digressing, but stars actually, don’t matter at al.
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Anu Warrier
May 3, 2019
I, for one, am glad. And I’m sure Anupama will be, too. She still hasn’t gotten over the trolling from her star-rating for Befikre. 🙂
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as2001blog
May 3, 2019
I can speak for myself – have never paid much attention to stars, when reading critic reviews. It is the keen eye and perspective that the reviewers bring out which interests me. It helps in becoming a better audience. If popular opinion based on a rating system is required, there are tonnes of other places to get them. So bravo! Great move!
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Bala
May 3, 2019
Good decision. Star rating is useful in IMDB kind of setup, where the goal is to give a feel of multiple viewers’ take on a film. Your logic of giving stars based on “did the film achieve what it was trying to do” made no sense at all..
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Isai
May 3, 2019
BR, your headline for Viswasam review was: “Viswasam”… With this pretty decent action-drama, Siva finally repays Ajith’s faith in him
The headline for Pettai review was:
“Petta”… A treat for fans of the star makes you wish it had also been one for fans of the director
Now, both these headlines may be apt but they don’t help one in deciding which movie to prefer, for that weekend. Reading the headlines alone, I was inclined to think that Petta would at least be slightly better than Viswasam, whereas your ratings say otherwise. This brings us to the main problem: A majority of moviegoers look at reviews only for helping them to choose that 1 movie, that they would have time to watch, during that weekend. Without a star system, it would become even more difficult for you to guide them on that decision.
Yes, there are cinephiles who would be interested in reading more about the art form and ‘readers’ who would always visit to enjoy your writing; but as the views for a future movie like say a Devarattam would indicate, they are only a microscopic minority.
I use TOI portal mainly to check non tamil movie reviews. Only if a movie has 3.5 stars or above (because TOI is usually lenient and biased towards ‘mass’ heroes), I look for other reviews of that movie to see if it is widely appreciated. If it is, I would consider watching it. So, if views and ads are important, than star rating is a necessary evil.
I am predicting that FC would come back to use the star ratings, within a year (at most).
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Krishna
May 3, 2019
Agreed.
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Ravi K
May 3, 2019
“A majority of moviegoers look at reviews only for helping them to choose that 1 movie, that they would have time to watch, during that weekend. Without a star system, it would become even more difficult for you to guide them on that decision.”
There’s an entire review below the star rating that should help them decide…
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Sutheesh Kumar
May 4, 2019
Well, what i would say is you watch a movie you think you’re gonna like regardless of what your favourite critic deems worth watching or not. The bonus is when your favourite critic aligns with how you felt about the movie. Case in point, the Kirik Party (Lucia, Godhibanna Sadharana Maykattu, UTurn, Kavaludaari) review by BR. I had already watched it 3 times before BR reviewed it. BR’s review came just after the new year and complemented my own experience of the the movie. I even thanked BR for that review.
So what I’m saying is that the star system can go take a flying fuck. I always come here (pun intended) for BR’s artistry with words and as long as BR puts this shit out consistently I ain’t need the stars literally or figuratively.
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Kesavan
May 4, 2019
I understand your reasoning for abandoning the star system, but disappointed too. While reading through your review is certainly enjoyable, I do look at your rating to find out “how much” YOU enjoyed the movie. Over time I calibrate that to determine which kind of movies you liked, I too ended up liking.
Here is the clincher for me though… your reviews, while eminently readable, are truly enjoyable after I have watched the movie. I quickly browse through the review the first time around trying to determine whether to watch the movie or not — and the star rating helps quite a bit in that. I come back later to compare notes and that is when the details in the review helps.
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Sutheesh Kumar
May 4, 2019
I should add Angamaly Dairies, Thondimuthalum Drikshakiyum, Carbon, Kumbalangi Nights, Athiran and Varathan to that list I mentioned in my previous comment.
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Saket
May 4, 2019
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the star rating system, per se. Film reviewing, like other fields, isn’t (rather, shouldn’t be) completely subjective. There needs to be some sort of objectivity attached to the process. The star rating is one such objective measure. It forces one to distill one’s thought process.
The problem, however, arises because different critics use the system differently. If reviewers or critics can take the time out to explain their rating system, it would make things more clear. Ratings aren’t bad because they make one think — hard — about a product. It’s a great mental workout but the key is to remain consistent. And honest.
I also believe that ratings can change over time. And they should. The lack of change belies the growth of a critic/reviewer with the passage of time.
And finally, to be brutally honest, what was SRK doing in an award show organised by a critics association? Not that I thought his speech was bad (it was hilarious in places) but why should this parasitic relationship between stars and critics be allowed to exist? Don’t we have enough gutkha-sponsored award shows that thrive on this relationship already?
Instead of doing away with the star rating system, the critics should do away with stars! Learn from our western counterparts, the OFCS. They just do a vote and announce the winners. No showbaazi, no reliance on stars and no patting each other on the back.
The star rating system is the least of our problems. People who follow critics should be more worried about why Manoj Bajpai did not get a nomination for his performance in Gully Guleiyan!
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Isai
May 4, 2019
“There’s an entire review below the star rating that should help them decide…”
Yes, there is. But a lot of theatre going audience want to be totally clueless about the movie except perhaps to only know that they won’t regret it. Not just Spoilers, even something like ‘1st half is quite good, but the movie sucks post interval’ spoils the theatre experience.
Also, on a good weekend, around 10 movies release in Chennai across languages. I don’t want to read reviews for all of them but would like to watch a really good movie. In such cases, star system does help.
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Nathan
May 4, 2019
It’s great that reviewers will stop reducing their movie reviews to a bunch of stars.
Now if only the audience will stop reducing their movie watching to a bunch of (movie) stars….
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Arun Pradeep
May 4, 2019
Bravo!
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Doba
May 4, 2019
Nah I don’t buy the conceit for the following reasons 🙂
Most movie reviewers may be passionate about movies but they don’t write very well. The review runs along the following lines – a few lines of story with lots of spoilers, some lines about acting (X acted well, Y was terrible, Z was passable), some mandatory lines on the technical aspects (screenplay, cinematography etc.) and one line about music. I read newspapers voraciously. But I have given up reading movie reviews because they are so predictable and boring.
Now if you are a gifted writer, then you have your readers who are not going to care about the stars anyway. I don’t think all the writers in film companion are equally gifted in this respect 🙂
If the movie analysis is interesting, we visit it months after the movie was released. I watched Bahubali 2 almost a year after it came out. I still came and read the review here because it was interesting.
Of course, movie makers don’t care for stars (who likes being appraised?) and reviewers don’t like stars (it forces objectivity). But as an audience I love it. Before choosing a movie on Saturday night, I check the rotten tomatoes score. I don’t want reviewer A’s score because I don’t think anybody’s taste matches exactly. But the aggregate score is very useful since it averages out personal taste, bias etc. Stars are saving people’s time and money. I think that is really useful.
There is no way an algorithm (at this point of time) can sense how well a movie was liked by a reviewer by reading the text. The word “good” could have been used for “movie was good” and “X did a good job at hamming”. I don’t think NLP is at a stage where it can grasp nuance and context.
Finally, I think stars are really important to small movies that are not well publicised. I look for best rated movie of 2018 etc. when I choose a movie.
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Soren K
May 5, 2019
IDK.
I usually come back to your reviews after I watch the movie. For instance, I missed Super Deluxe in theaters – I saw that you loved it, but still am waiting for DVD/Online streaming to release the film so that I can come back and read your reviews.
Actually, the sort of shallow TOI sorta reviewers would have a better case than you here, re: the star system – because your analysis is in-depth (and ergo, spoiler ridden).
This is especially tough when you don’t have the luxury of watching all movies, but gotta pick and choose as far as moviegoing is concerned.
I totally get the downside of it as well, like how it’s reductive, how the standards or criteria of ratings itself varies (Viswasam vs Petta is a prime example here) – but feel like you’re totally glossing over the flip side.
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meera
May 7, 2019
Wow… sometimes a single step is the only thing needed for a massive change. KUDOS! Ofcourse this is a standing-ovation-worthy-move… have no regrets. Good luck and Godspeed!
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Srimugunthan Rishithan
May 9, 2019
As much I usually look at review ratings before watching any movie, I like this very decision because it puts emphasis the review and what his or her opinion is off the movie rather than some digit or in this case the amount of stars coloured yellow. Either way, I LOVE reading your reviews and just you as a person so this isn’t something that is bothering. Haha, Good luck trying to deal with those pesty, “Boss, enga unga 2.5 rating?” or something even more harsh considering the toxic vijay, ajith fanbase.
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