Cher Tan

Cher Tan is an essayist and critic. Her work has appeared in the Sydney Review of Books, Hyperallergic, Catapult, The Age, Disclaimer Journal, Cordite Poetry Review and Overland, amongst many others. She is an editor at Liminal and the reviews editor at Meanjin. Her debut essay collection, Peripathetic: Notes on (Un)belonging is out now with NewSouth Publishing. She lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri land.

Outlets: No gods, no masters! 

X: @mxcreant

Website: jerkofalltrades.net

Location: Naarm/Melbourne

Movie location I call home*: The research station in Solaris

What was the film or experience that made you want to write about the screen?
I don’t think there was one particular experience or piece of art that made me want to write criticism (be it film, arts, cultural, literary); it’s really just a fun way of sparring with yourself, and something I’ve been predisposed to since I was quite young as a way to make sense of observations and responses.

What do you think are the major issues facing contemporary film criticism?
Networked algorithms concentrating attention onto films that become stand-ins for a kind of consumerist identification. Star ratings.

How can film criticism stay vital in 2024?
The only way any kind of criticism can stay vital in 2024 is that there shouldn’t be any outside meddling, whether this means by institutions, editors or executives. All of this is to say: Free Palestine.

What’s one piece of advice that you’d give an emerging critic today?
It’s okay to be wrong. Criticism is not a debate, or about having the last word. 

Who’s a critic that has inspired you?
The late Greg Tate. Not only is he a sharp critic, his criticism is often shot through with humour, with surprising one-of-a-kind sentences that tells stories about arts and culture as he sees it.

Who’s a critic that everyone should be reading right now?
A.S. Hamrah remains one of my favourite contemporary film critics. Read his book The Earth Dies Streaming! I also really admire Phoebe Chen and James Wham’s criticism.

What’s the best thing you’ve seen this year so far? Evil Does Not Exist

What’s your MIFF 2024 theme music? The entirety of Mort Garson’s Mother Earth Plantasia.