Longtime listeners to The Editors and/or my podcast will know that I often describe myself as a “movie idiot.” By this I mean that I am not especially good at evaluating movies outside of whether I enjoyed them or not — which, usually, I do. With music, I hear every last thing. (It can actually be a problem.) With movies? Not so much. This is partly innate — there are lot of very good musicians in my family’s history, but nobody especially visually artistic — and partly the product of my upbringing, which was full of music of all kinds but thin on movies.

I was treated to a confirmation of my movie idiocy last night when I watched The Boys in the Boat. I’d seen that Maddy had reviewed it, and that Jack Butler had responded to that review, so I thought that I’d watch it, too. Maybe I’d even have something to add?

To avoid spoilers, I didn’t read either review until I’d finished. And here’s the thing: Immediately after I’d watched it, I thought it was really good. Nice movie. Beautifully shot. Good story. Fun acting. Appealing color palette. Not the greatest film I’d ever seen, but better than average. And then I read Maddy’s review, and . . . well, she’s right. All of her criticisms are right. Once she’d pointed them out, I could see them. Without her having done so, however, I never would have. The same is true of Jack’s post. On my own, I wouldn’t have noticed the flaws he outlines. With his help, I can’t unsee them.

Actually, that’s not quite true. I did notice one thing that Jack highlighted:

A more niche complaint: Many of the action shots of rowing, especially during races, lingered on the parts of the boat where the oars are fixed. Knowledgeable about movies but not about rowing, I was constantly thinking, because of these choices of focus, that something was about to go wrong with one of the oars, but that never occurred.

I thought this, too. I thought it three times, in fact. And if I saw it, it really must be a mistake!

Anyhow, it’s occasionally nice to have your conception of yourself endorsed by the outside world. I think I’m bad at criticizing movies, and I am, in fact, bad at criticizing movies. How good is that?