Taika Waititi Calls Film Critics 'Obsolete' as 'Klara and the Sun' Earns $720,000 Opening
The director's post promoted a 78% audience score for the film, compared with a 28% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
By Jason Wood ·
Director Taika Waititi posted on Instagram to defend his new film "Klara and the Sun" against negative reviews, writing that critics are "Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin." The post shared the film's poster alongside a 78% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. The critic score sits at 28%, Waititi's lowest to date.
Waititi said he has not read a review aimed at himself or his peers in nearly 15 years. "I haven't read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years. But I do listen to the people," he wrote. He added that critics who disliked his earlier film "Jojo Rabbit" are "sad lost souls who couldn't achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus became critics."
The film opened last weekend at No. 15, taking $720,000 from 880 locations. Sony later reduced its theatrical footprint after reviews described it as a "calamitous" and "strained, whimsical comedy that's ruinous."
Jenna Ortega, who plays the android Klara, told Vogue she avoids reading reviews because "that would send me into a psychosis of some sort" and does not track box office results because "I don't want it to become a numbers thing."
The film adapts Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel, set in a dystopian future where an obsolete companion android attempts to bond with Josie, a young sick girl who is her new owner.
Source: Variety
