Normie Masterpiece

This funny and extremely niche thing happened a long while ago now but I finally have an excuse to talk about it with Blaugust:

I listen to a podcast called Sardonicast. The three hosts, Adam, Alex and Jake, watch movies and discuss their opinions on the show. During on episode they talk about sinners and Adam scores it a 6/10 and remarks that it is a “normie masterpiece”.

Quite hilariously, this caused quite the stir in the Sardonicast community. Not to beat around the bush, but Adam was already considered by a lot of folks to be a little pretentious with his tastes (which I think is true, in fairness), but this comment seemed to signal to many he thought he was superior to everyone else. It’s a little odd it got as big as it did and how riled up everyone got, but it was funny in a way to see how sensitive got.

It could be that they didn’t like someone they respected perceivably calling them ordinary, with nothing particularly special about their movie tastes, but cynical old me thinks there must just be some part of the Sardonicast fandom that simply dislikes Adam a lot. They were far too ready to turn on him.

It’s easy to be parasocial online and draw conclusions about strangers based on what we see through the screens. Let me demonstrate just how easy it is to do so based on what I know of him: He holds all films, regardless of their own goals to one incredibly high indie-art-film standard and, despite the “normie masterpiece” comment implying some films are too focused on mass audiences to be truly good, his favourite film is The Lion King. Is that not Disney’s biggest normie masterpiece itself? Therefore, Adam must be a huge hypocrite, right?

All of that is bad faith arguing that weaponises Adam’s preferences against him. A lot of people don’t mean this kind of this maliciously, but I imagine it’s hard not to see it as such when you’re on the receiving end.

Let’s be frank: I don’t know this guy, but something I had ought to know is that everyone is a walking contradiction, to some extent, in the same way Adum might be with “normie masterpiece” implications, and the Lion King being his favourite film. For example, I complain about the slop in the MCU all the time, but I’ll still turn out for whatever slop they put Godzilla in next when the Monsterverse comes out with a new whacky film. It’s easy to over analyse everyone online the way I just have. It must suck being an internet celebrity, not being able to have a half-baked film opinion – a normal film opinion – without hundreds of people analysing you like that, searching for and assuming you having bad intentions.

So, despite him being a bit pretentious, who cares? Genuinely, I don’t understand why so many people need this man to validate that they are not ordinary, and also have special opinions on film. Adam is a very talented film reviewer with unique tastes and an entertaining style. Film reviewers are a common breed, and Adam has the sauce to stand out. Watching Adam review a movie is interesting because his views are, generally, different and misaligned from the majority. There is the sense that only he could give you the perspective he delivers, which cannot be said for the majority of content creators, unfortunately, and that is why he is successful. He can change your perspective, or add to it, because he offers insight that is solely his own. And yes, we can disagree with him – he is only human, not an infallible film review God – without getting insecure about our own tastes.