There's A First Time For Everything

I'm about to do something I never thought I would do: I'm going to (somewhat) defend Jeffrey Wells.

Given all the things I've said about the man on this site and through social media, I'm just as surprised that I'm coming to this douchebag's defense on anything, but I do need to step in here. Last week, the "spiritual successor" to the 2008 hit monster movie, Cloverfield, was released in the form of 10 Cloverfield Lane, which has become a hit with critics and did fairly well at the box office (given that Disney's animated feature Zootopia is still making a killing domestically and overseas), doing $25.2 million over the weekend on a $15 million budget. Of the many things Mr. Wells has said, from wanting to kick a child with down syndrome out of a theater, to making nasty, sexist comments about a woman's shape, going after the dickhead for simply not liking an actress in a movie for x,y and z reasons isn't one of them.

@M_E_Winstead How to flagrantly ACT terrified with calculated ACTING tricks as opposed to being & naturally exuding the real thing.
— Hollywood Elsewhere (@wellshwood) March 13, 2016

Opinions about movies will always be subjective to the viewer and just because you didn't care for the way an actor or actress gave his or her performance, or simply didn't care for the film in general, it doesn't mean that someone (anyone, really) should get tons of shit for bucking from the popular consensus. Granted, Mr. Wells could have said this a lot better and not tried to further stoke the fire for hits on his site but I'm just not down with punishing a fellow film lover/critic for the crime of not liking a movie you enjoyed. Plus, we did get this sweet response from the film's star, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, over Wells' comments:

@wellshwood was I also too fat in this film? Please let me know ASAP :)
— Mary E. Winstead (@M_E_Winstead) March 13, 2016

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