Taika Waititi has responded to negative reviews of Klara and the Sun, using an Instagram post on Saturday, October 31, to highlight the difference between audience and critical reactions to the film. The director shared a poster displaying its Rotten Tomatoes scores and accompanied it with a sharp criticism of film reviewers.
The figures shown on the poster put the film’s audience score at 78 percent and its critics score at 28 percent. Waititi presented that contrast alongside his assertion that he pays attention to viewers, even though he said he has avoided reading reviews directed at himself or his peers for almost 15 years.
In his Halloween message, Waititi called critics “sad lost souls” and suggested they had entered criticism after failing to fulfill ambitions to become artists. He also invoked the reception of his earlier film Jojo Rabbit, saying the same people had disliked it. His caption dismissed those reviewers as “Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete.”
The social media response followed the film’s theatrical opening the previous week. Klara and the Sun earned an estimated $725,000 during its opening weekend, when it played in 880 theaters across North America. That performance left it outside the box office top 10. By the time of publication, its worldwide gross stood at approximately $1.7 million.
Starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, the film adapts Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel of the same name. Its story takes place in a dystopian future and centers on a companion android who has become obsolete. The android tries to form a bond with her new owner, Josie, a young girl coping with an illness.
The premise also brought artificial intelligence into Waititi’s discussion of the project at its New York premiere earlier in October. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he addressed questions about whether people would adopt AI and how extensively they might use it, including within his own industry.
Waititi said some use of the technology in the industry was probably inevitable, but stressed that humans should use it as a tool rather than as a substitute for people. Explaining his preference for human collaboration, he said: “I don’t want to replace humans. I want to work with them.”
