# Why do foreign films always get good reviews in the U.S.? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185 "2009-07-07T12:42:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/1 "2009-07-07T12:42:45Z")
I was flipping through _The New York Times_ movie reviews a week or so ago and realized that I’ve never seen they or any other American reviewer give a foreign movie a bad review. What accounts for this? Do the foreign films that make it to the U.S. get here because they’re that good? Is there a certain high-brow elitism that foreign flicks are more cultured and artistic? I’ve seen a few foreign films and I’ll admit that they while they ranged in quality, they were all pretty darned good, but my limited experience is by no means a reliable indicator. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/2 "2009-07-07T12:45:57Z")
Mostly because bad movies overseas don’t make it here. I have seen foreign movies get bad reviews so it’s not like they are always praised. A month or 2 ago a French film got really panned by a local critic. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/3 "2009-07-07T12:47:43Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > I was flipping through _The New York Times_ movie reviews a week or so ago and realized that I’ve never seen they or any other American reviewer give a foreign movie a bad review. Shitty foreign movies don’t tend to get overseas distribution deals, because they are shitty. OTOH, almost everything Hollywood produces gets distributed overseas, because Hollywood productions are comparatively gigantic. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/4 "2009-07-07T12:55:42Z")
What kind of person becomes a film critic? Typically, it’s NOT someone who likes Michael Bay action films or Farrelly Brothers comedies. Typically, it’s someone from the “cultural elite” (that’s not a putdown, by the way; I’m an Ivy Leaguer myself). Which means that film critics are generally the type of person who’s predisposed to love Ingmar Bergman, and to look down on the Least Common Denominator films that Hollywood churns out. Of course, if those critics lived in France, and saw the ordinary, average movies made there, they’d quickly get over the notion that European culture as a whole is much better than what’s made here. In France AND in the United States, popular culture is mostly crap. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/5 "2009-07-07T13:36:45Z")
If you want to see one of those movie critics faint dead, strap them to a chair and pop in a copy of any of the three Torrente movies - the three best-grossing movies in Spanish history so far are material that Benny Hill would have been happy to have a cameo in. It’s a combination of self-selection (foreign movies don’t reach the US market unless it’s a good bet they’ll work) and of critics expecting them to be good. Then again, one of the criteria for the selection is “what do the critics think?”, so the two reasons form a bit of a vicious circle. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/6 "2009-07-07T14:20:11Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Then again, one of the criteria for the selection is “what do the critics think?” Actually you may something there. I was going to chime in with ‘only the good ones make it across the pond in the first place’, but thinking about it, foreign **language** films are always going to struggle to get an audience **unless** they’ve had rave reviews, so it makes sense for the distributors to only push films that the critics will love (and that will get an oscar gong or two). Pretty much the same thing happens here in the UK - we get any manner of dross as long as it’s in english, but only get a few very good foreign language films making it into the mainstream cinemas. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/7 "2009-07-07T15:12:40Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Typically, it’s someone from the “cultural elite” (that’s not a putdown, by the way; I’m an Ivy Leaguer myself). Which means that film critics are generally the type of person who’s predisposed to love Ingmar Bergman, and to look down on the Least Common Denominator films that Hollywood churns out. That’s just not true. It’s basically just an ignorant stereotype and [Roger Ebert](http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/07/i_am_a_brainiac.html) recently blasted the idiocy around it. Ebert, of course, grew up in the midwest, went to the University of Illinois, wrote a script for softcore porn film, was a science fiction fan and high school sportwriter, and became a critic simply by seeing a lot of movies and writing reviews. Ebert, of course, has also raved about some of the so-called “Least Common Denominator” films like **The Band Wagon** (a frothy musical), **The Big Heat** (gangster film), **Blade Runner, Body Heat, Bonnie and Clyde, Bride of Frankenstein, Bridge over the River Kwai** (and that’s just through the B’s). He liked **Drag Me to Hell, The Hangover, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2** and even **Land of the Lost** (!). The story is the same with any film critic you care to name. They will rave about a good “Least Common Denominator” film – **The Dark Knight** got a 90% from professional critics on [Rottentomatoes.com](http://Rottentomatoes.com); **Spider-Man** , 85%; **Spider-Man 2** , 95%. These are in line with the comments by amateur film fans. Pro critics actually liked the original **Transformers** better than the group as a whole (57% for all critics, 68% for top critics). Their consensus on **Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen** was almost exactly in line with that of everyone else who reviewed the movie. The main difference between a film critic and a lot of filmgoers is experience. They’ve seen more movies than you have, and expect more from a movie than two hours of explosions and fights, which grow boring after a couple of minutes. The reason why they like directors like Bergman (and they don’t like all his films equally, either) is because Bergman has made a long list of undeniably great films dealing with great themes. People knock Bergman as some sort of height of pretention, but how many have actually seen his films? He’s done comedy, for instance, and his films are always emotionally and intellectually challenging. I certainly wouldn’t want to watch his films every day, but I also wouldn’t want to watch many other films that often. When I’m in a mood for great drama, then Bergman is a fine choice. > [@](#): > > Of course, if those critics lived in France, and saw the ordinary, average movies made there, they’d quickly get over the notion that European culture as a whole is much better than what’s made here. In France AND in the United States, popular culture is mostly crap. Which critics? How about naming some. No, because you’re attacking a straw man – a snobbish critic who loves everything French and hates everything American. Such critics don’t exist. Popular culture is mostly crap, but that’s just Sturgeon’s law. There are dozens of great pop culture films, and the film critics you charge with hating US culture (who are they, again?) freely admit that and even rave about pop culture films – if they’re good. French critics similarly rave about US pop culture films (Jerry Lewis) if they think they’re good. The reason why foreign films are generally liked by American critics has nothing to do with snobbishness. It’s for the reason **Bijou Drains** mentions: bad foreign films don’t make it to the US. Time and distances always filter out weak movies so the results look better than they really are. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/8 "2009-07-07T15:15:43Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > If you want to see one of those movie critics faint dead, strap them to a chair and pop in a copy of any of the three Torrente movies - the three best-grossing movies in Spanish history so far are material that Benny Hill would have been happy to have a cameo in. Popularity \<\> quality. That’s the basic fallacy of this sort of attack on critics. A terrible film can be massively popular – but it’s still a bad film ( **Star Wars Episode I** anyone?). ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/9 "2009-07-07T15:28:15Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Which critics? How about naming some. No, because you’re attacking a straw man – a snobbish critic who loves everything French and hates everything American. Such critics don’t exist. Jonathan Rosenbaum, formerly of the Chicago Reader. The man is a total snob that never met a foreign film he didn’t like. I remember for a film class in college I had to read some of his essays for a project and even the ones that were based around lowest common deonominator films like comedies or action movies, he still wrote about obscure foreign language films. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/10 "2009-07-07T17:23:22Z")
Just this past weekend on _At the Movies_ one (or both) of the guys recommended “Skip It” to some French-langauge movie. I’ve seen them both praise and pan foreign-language movies, although the praises do seem to outpace the pans (IME). ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/11 "2009-07-07T17:46:24Z")
I have definitely seen pans of foreign movies in, for example, Entertainment Weekly magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/12 "2009-07-07T17:57:40Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > I was flipping through _The New York Times_ movie reviews a week or so ago and realized that I’ve never seen they or any other American reviewer give a foreign movie a bad review. You’ve never heard of Uwe Boll, I take it? Or for that matter, Renny Harlin or Paul Verhoeven? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/13 "2009-07-07T18:23:03Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > You’ve never heard of Uwe Boll, I take it? Or for that matter, Renny Harlin or Paul Verhoeven? There’s a difference between a foreign film, and a film made by a foreigner. All three of those directors make English-language films intended for American audiences. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/14 "2009-07-07T18:43:24Z")
Ebert gives bad reviews to foreign films pretty regularly. A few since 2008: [Ashes of Time Redux](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081111/REVIEWS/811129991/1023), [Chandi Chowl to China](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090114/REVIEWS/901149997/1023), [House of the Sleeping Beauties](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090107/REVIEWS/901079992/1023), [Waiting for Dublin](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090311/REVIEWS/903119978/1023). Two of my all-time favorites: [Little Indian, Big City](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19960322/REVIEWS/603220306) and [I Am Curious (Yellow)](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19690923/REVIEWS/909230301/1023). ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/15 "2009-07-07T19:07:27Z")
There’s a [great Slate piece](http://www.slate.com/id/2221383/) on how the Chinese movies that the Chinese actually watch are better than the Chinese arthouse flicks that end up being imported into the US. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/16 "2009-07-07T20:44:58Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Popularity \<\> quality. That’s the basic fallacy of this sort of attack on critics. A terrible film can be massively popular – but it’s still a bad film ( **Star Wars Episode I** anyone?). Foreign cheesy action films get better reviews than domestic cheesy action films- just ask John Woo, who’s no more a genius than Andrew Davis or John McTiernan, but who routinely got rave reviews for his formulaic action movies. And foreign lame-o comedies get better reviews than domestic lame-o comedies. “Trois Hommes et un Couffin” got raves, even though it was no better than its American remake. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/17 "2009-07-07T21:09:22Z")
I agree with the selection bias meaning that reviews of foreign films are going to be better on average than domestic films. All domestic films get reviewed, but foreign films will have already been through one round of selection to even get to where domestic critics are reviewing it. And there’s certainly a level of condescension, I’d say. A certain willingness to excuse the lameness of other cultures. Or even just an inability to recognize it. When something is just slightly stupid about a presentation of American culture it sticks out like a sore thumb. But something equally stupid in a portrayal of Mongolian culture I am going to have difficulty seeing. But here you go, [bad reviews](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chandni_chowk_to_china/?critic=creamcrop) for a foreign movie. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/18 "2009-07-07T21:15:37Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Jonathan Rosenbaum, formerly of the Chicago Reader. > > The man is a total snob that never met a foreign film he didn’t like. I remember for a film class in college I had to read some of his essays for a project and even the ones that were based around lowest common deonominator films like comedies or action movies, he still wrote about obscure foreign language films. One of Rosenbaum’s very favorite directors is Orson Welles, so it’s a little hard to claim that he’s somehow against American cinema (and similarly incorrect to claim that just because he boosts good foreign obscurities, he’s elevating them over anything American). He’s made it very clear that one of his big goals is to expose underappreciated films, foreign or domestic, and a quick look at one of [his best-of-decade](http://www.alsolikelife.com/FilmDiary/rosenbaum00s.html) lists will further clarify that. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/19 "2009-07-07T21:19:35Z")
Meh, we should be looking at trends, not point sources. I am willing to believe that all things being equal, film critics are more attracted to the European (for its cultural cachet) and have a higher tolerance for the foreign (exotic appeal, &c.) than the average moviewatcher. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2009, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185/20 "2009-07-08T06:39:51Z")
> [@athelas](#): > > Meh, we should be looking at trends, not point sources. I am willing to believe that all things being equal, film critics are more attracted to the European (for its cultural cachet) and have a higher tolerance for the foreign (exotic appeal, &c.) than the average moviewatcher. I think that’s a given, as most moviewatchers I know don’t like subtitles. Some people\* even complained about them when I watched _The Passion of the Christ_ (It was free, I was poor, and I actually liked it, though the DVD copy I bought later is still unplayed.) [SIZE=3]\*These people were Latinos, so it could have just been a language barrier.[/SIZE] [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-foreign-films-always-get-good-reviews-in-the-u-s/502185.md?page=2)