Dennis Harvey, the veteran film critic whose critique of Promised Young Woman has sparked furor across the industry, countered the misogyny charges amid calls for Variety to fire him.
Harvey’s review was published more than a year ago, following the film’s debut at the Sundance film festival. Mostly positive, he called Mulligan’s performance “skillful, fun and challenging”, while questioning the central cast. As “a good actress,” wrote Harvey, Mulligan “seems like a bit of an odd choice, since this seemingly multifaceted femme fatale”.
Discussing the character’s deliberate artifice in more depth, Harvey noted that “Margot Robbie is a producer here, and one can (perhaps very easily) imagine that the role could have been planned for her. Whereas, with this star, Cassie uses her pickup bait equipment as bad dredging; even her long blond hair looks like a fake. “
Mulligan objected to the criticism, telling the New York Times in December: “I felt that I was basically saying that I was not hot enough to use this type of ruse.
“It made me so crazy… I thought, ‘Really? For this film, are you going to write something so transparent? Now? In 2020? ‘I just couldn’t believe it. “
Variety responded by adding a note from the editor at the top of Harvey’s criticism, apologizing for the “insensitive language” but leaving his words intact.
Mulligan reiterated his discomfort with the criticism earlier this week in a video interview hosted by Variety, leading to further criticism abuses on social media.
Speaking to the Guardian, Harvey said he was not comfortable with the way Mulligan’s words to the New York Times describing his anger at criticism became sensible about what his criticism actually said. “I did no to say or even mean that Mulligan ‘is not hot enough’ for the role, ”said Harvey.
“I am a 60-year-old gay. In fact, I don’t think about the comparative likes of young actresses, let alone writing about it. “
Harvey added that he was “shocked to be labeled a misogynist, which is very foreign to my personal or political beliefs. This whole thing couldn’t be more horrifying to me than if someone had claimed that I was an enthusiastic Trump supporter. “
Harvey said he avoided the social media speech triggered by the fallout on the advice of friends who said that no one who commented seemed to have read the review and that some people said “I must be defending the rape, I was probably a predator like the men in the movie”.
“What I was trying to write about was the emphasis on the film and [Mulligan’s] disguised performance, deliberate narrative staging and disorientation. Nor did mentioning Margot Robbie intended to be a comparison of “personal appearance”.
“Robbie is the film’s producer, and I mentioned it just to underline how the cast contributes to the film’s subversive content – a star associated with a character like Harley Quinn [Robbie’s Suicide Squad character] may raise very specific expectations, but Mulligan is a chameleon and his highly stylized performance keeps the viewer uncertain where the story is going. “
Harvey admitted that he may not have expressed such a sentiment specifically enough in his criticism, but that he was driven by a desire to hide the twists and turns of the plot from the public.
“I assumed that filmmakers who created such a complex and layered film would not interpret what I wrote as some form of simplistic sexism. And while Carey Mulligan certainly has the right to interpret criticism as she pleases, her projection suggesting that she “is not hot” is, for me, simply bizarre. I’m sorry that she feels that way. But I also regret that it is a conclusion that she would skip, because it is quite a leap. “
Mulligan’s publicists have yet to respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Harvey also highlighted the discrepancy between the reaction of the film’s star and his distributor in the United States, who “immediately asked for permission to use several critical pullquotes in his marketing a year ago.”
He also questioned the timing of the controversy, noting that his criticism was apparently considered unquestionable enough to escape the complaint for 11 months, “until the film was finally released, promoted and an Oscar campaign.” Only then was his criticism “belatedly labeled ‘insensitive’ and flagged with an official ‘apology’.”
Variety editors expressed no concern about the review when he first presented it, Harvey said, not even in the months after the New York Times article.
His professional destiny remains uncertain. “It remains to be seen whether, after 30 years of writing for Variety, I will be fired for the content of reviews that no one found offensive until it became food for a viral trend article.”