Taika Waititi took to social media to defend his latest directorial effort, “Klara and the Sun,” despite poor reviews and dismal box office numbers, sharing an Instagram post featuring the film’s poster and a 78% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. (By contrast, the critic score is 28%, the “Jojo Rabbit” director’s lowest score yet).
“I haven’t read any criticism of me or my colleagues in almost 15 years. But I’m listening to people,” Waititi wrote in his caption. “So this Halloween, let’s leave aside those sad lost souls who couldn’t fulfill their dreams of becoming artists and therefore became critics. The same people who hated Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. Trash.”
When it opened in theaters last weekend, “Klara and the Sun” placed a staggering 15th with just $720,000 from 880 locations, and Sony scaled back its theatrical footprint after reviews deemed the film a “disaster” and a “subversive, tense, weird comedy.”
Jenna Ortega, who stars as the film’s female android, also said in a recent Vogue interview that she doesn’t read reviews of her films because “it would drive me into some kind of psychosis,” or that she doesn’t check box office updates when her team sends them to her because “I don’t want it to become a numbers thing.”
Adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel, “Klara and the Sun” follows an outdated companion android (Ortega) in a dystopian future as he tries to bond with his new owner, a young, sickly girl named Josie.
See Waititi’s post here.