In his 2020 Variety review of Promising Young Woman, critic Dennis Harvey commented on Carey Mulligan’s appearance in the film, stating that she “wears her pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blonde hair seems a put-on.” He goes on to suggest that Mulligan was an “odd choice” and that the role was more suited for Margot Robbie, a producer on the film. 

She added, “It drove me so crazy. I was like, ‘Really? For this film, you’re going to write something that is so transparent? Now? In 2020?’ I just couldn’t believe it.”

Variety has since issued an apology.

The reviews of 2020’s The New Mutants were less than favorable, with critics comparing it to the likes of a CW show and citing its tone as inconsistent. But it was Scott Mendelson of Forbes that called it “the worst X-Men movie ever.” He also suggested that while “Anya Taylor-Joy makes for a compelling Illyana Rasputin, none of the other kids, all of whom have done fine work elsewhere, make an impression.”

Maisie Williams, who plays Wolfsbane in the film, tweeted a link to Mendelson’s review with the caption: “Sounds like a must see! Get your tickets now.”

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In his review of 2013’s Identity Thief, film critic Rex Reed spent a considerable amount of time attacking Melissa McCarthy’s appearance. He referred to her as “tractor-sized,” a “female hippo,” and “a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success.”

McCarthy added that if she had read this review when she was 20, “it may have crushed [her].”

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be the last time that McCarthy received a critique of her appearance in a film review.

The reviews for the 2014 movie Tammy were pretty harsh and not just on the plot. Critics were particularly hard on Melissa McCarthy. One particular critic, though, got a little too personal in a review, commenting on her appearance and her relationship with her husband, who directed the movie.

After he said yes, she asked, “Would you say that to any guy? When John C. Reilly — or any actor — is playing a character that is depressed and dejected, would you say, ‘Well, you look terrible!?’” 

After McCarthy found out the critic had a daughter, she said, “Watch what you say to her,” and asked, “Do you tell her she’s only worthwhile or valid when she’s pretty?”

Fifty Shades of Grey was never a big hit with the critics, with some citing Jamie Dornan’s rigid performance as a major factor. One particular review said Dornan had the charisma of oatmeal.

In a 2020 Variety interview, while discussing a time in his life when he read bad reviews, Dornan brought up the oatmeal review, a critique he still remembers well. He said, “Some people like oatmeal, so I thought it was kind of harsh. I remember that stuck with me, and I don’t entirely disagree with it either.”

He said of similar bad reviews that he finds them funny and actually “let them drive [him].”

While most reviews praised A Quiet Place, the New Yorker called it “regressive” and accused the film of being political in that it centers on a white family protecting their home while armed with guns. The review asserted that the movie is, “as horror films go, the antithesis of Get Out.”

A few years later, John Krasinski commented on the New Yorker’s review in an Esquire interview, stating that he never intended for his film to have a political slant. He claims that the film is a metaphor for parenthood.

In CinemaBlend’s Turning Red review, critic Sean O’Connell said that he thought the film was not “made for” him as it’s “rooted very specifically in the Asian community of Toronto.” He argued the film was unrelatable and limiting, and that he was unable to connect with any of it.

After the review faced backlash, CinemaBlend removed it from their site, and O’Connell and editor-in-chief Mack Rawden apologized.

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In his New York Times review of The Avengers, A.O. Scott praised the film for its small, amusing moments, but criticized the big action sequences. Overall, his review was negative, as Scott said, the “light, amusing bits cannot overcome the grinding, hectic emptiness, the bloated cynicism that is less a shortcoming of this particular film than a feature of the genre.”

In regards to Samuel L. Jackson’s performance, Scott said his Nick Fury is “more master of ceremonies than mission commander.” This didn’t go over well as Jackson called out Scott on Twitter, suggesting the critic needs a new job.

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Universal Pictures

After seeing just the trailer for Amy Schumer’s 2015 movie Trainwreck, Jeffrey Wells, who runs Hollywood Elsewhere, wrote a semi-review where he asserted that “Judd Apatow is once again introducing a chubby, whipsmart, not conventionally attractive, neurotically bothered female comic to a mass audience — first Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, then Lena Dunham in HBO’s Girls and now Amy Schumer.”

He goes on to say that “there’s no way she’d be an object of heated romantic interest in the real world.” He continues, “Schumer’s wide facial features reminded me of a blonde Lou Costello around the time of Buck Privates, or Jennifer Aniston’s somewhat heavier, not-as-lucky sister who watches a lot of TV.”

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Universal Pictures

Logan Paul is not a film critic, in any sense of the word, but his Twitter thread “critiquing” Nope gained a lot of traction. After its release, he tweeted that the film was “one of the worst movies [he’s] seen in a long time.” He then posed a series of questions that attempted to invalidate the plot. While many people called Paul out for not understanding the film’s nuances and for asking questions that were clearly answered throughout the movie, some people still supported his stance on Nope. 

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David M. Benett / Dave Benett / WireImage

He goes on to question Paul’s authority on filmmaking: “Why is his opinion top of the tree? Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but what’s he done in cinema? Imagine if they asked me about Eric Clapton.”

Kaluuya tells the hosts, “I’d take everyone’s opinion on. I’ll listen to it, but I’m just going, ‘I don’t know why you over everybody else.'” He ends the segment by saying, “It’s just Logan Paul, innit?”

In another case of “the trailer just dropped, so let’s prematurely critique the movie,” film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote about the release of Bridget Jones’s Baby. In his Variety piece, titled “Renée Zellweger: If She No Longer Looks Like Herself, Has She Become a Different Actress?” he talks extensively about actors “having work done.” He ends with, “I just hope it turns out to be a movie that stars Renée Zellweger rather than a victim of ‘Invasion of the Face Snatchers.'”

She wrote, in defense of Zellweger, “How dare you? Who are you to approve of anything? What you are doing is vile, damaging, stupid, and cruel. It also reeks of status quo white-male privilege.”

She ends the article with, “Men like you and the women who sit idly by and say nothing should know that aiding and abetting is a moral crime, and if it were punished in Hollywood, most of you would be in some form of jail.”

In 2017, the New York Times posted a negative review of Big Little Lies, calling the show uninteresting and stating that “the women’s stories are just a compendium of clichés about upper-middle-class angst.”

The review went on to criticize a particular subplot which, it says, “strays into Fifty Shades territory.”

Two years later, at the Television Critics Association, while promoting Big Little Lies, the cast was asked if they’ve ever gotten a review that they felt was sexist.

Kidman said, “I was like, please watch the whole show, which is what I always say! Which I know is a massive time commitment because there are only so many hours. But you make the show whole.”

Neither Witherspoon nor Kidman named the publication or critic during the interview.

In her New York Times review of an off-Broadway production of Smokey Joe’s Cafe, critic Laura Collins-Hughes wrote, “[actress Alysha] Umphress, by the way, is bigger than the other women onstage, and the costume designer, Alejo Vietti, doesn’t seem to have known how to work with that, dressing her in an unnecessarily unflattering way.”

In a tweet directed at Collins-Hughes, the New York Times, and Deputy Editor of Arts & Leisure for the New York Times, Scott Heller, Umphress wrote, “It’s shocking to see a woman body shame an actress who isn’t a size 0 and praise one who is. Her wording wasn’t constructive. It was full on mean girl.”

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Columbia Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

In 2018, the BBC’s Mark Kermode reviewed the James Corden-led Peter Rabbit. He didn’t like the film and blamed a lot of that on Corden’s “almost instantly irritating voice.”

It read, “To hear you describe our son as ‘appallingly irritating’ was very difficult to listen to. One sincerely hopes that you never have to hear someone else describe your children as such, especially live on air, and especially as it seemed James was the only one drawn out for any criticism.”

Kermode responded, “Well, I don’t know what to add to that except that I believe my parents have heard me called much worse things than appallingly irritating.”