Taika Waititi attacked film critics on Instagram while celebrating a 78% audience rating for Klara and the Sun, which has a 26% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The 51-year-old director shared a poster highlighting the audience response to his adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams. Ortega plays Klara, an android who becomes a companion to Josie, played by Mia Tharia.
“I haven’t read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years. But I do listen to the people,” Waititi wrote.
“So this Halloween, let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit.”
He ended with: “Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.”
Jojo Rabbit has an 81% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside a 94% audience rating.
Waititi described Klara and the Sun as “the most dramatic thing I’ve done,” saying its tone makes it difficult to market. He called it “a deep meditation on the human condition.”
He also credited Ortega with challenging his decisions and helping him through the project: “All the actors I’ve cast in this, but Jenna especially because she carried everything, really saved my a*** in a lot of ways.”