Gaspar Noé's Provocative Opinion About Black Panther Is That He Hated It 

Like many male auteurs, Gapar Noé sometimes appears to be contrarian for its own sake. Ditto for being at Cannes, where he premiered his latest film, The Climax, to appreciative, even fawning reception (it also won a fancy award). The Irréversible and Into the Void director, who is no stranger to angry critics, was duly shocked.

Riding high on this success, and in his typical polarizing fashion, Noé revealed an unpopular opinion about one of the most beloved movies of the year so far: Black Panther. Not only did Noé hate it, he walked out after only 20 minutes. In other words, he hated the first 20 minutes of Black Panther. Noé told Variety on Thursday, in response to the question “Have you seen Black Panther”:

“I tried Black Panther. I escaped from the cinema after 20 minutes. I thought it was as bad as Star Wars. I hated Star Wars. I hated the R&B music [in Black Panther]. The music was so bad that I had to escape. But you know which one I like? What’s the name of the Denis Villeneuve movie? Arrival. That one was good.”

What’s actually annoying about this isn’t the opinion so much as the pompous delivery and dismissiveness (like, he didn’t even see it). Noé was far more generous to the new Lars von Trier serial killer movie, The House That Jack Built. Noé told Vulture, “All the sadistic scenes were so funny that people were staring at me because I couldn’t stop laughing.” A lot of people walked out of that movie.