Interesting quote. Who is this "we", an actual critic? No, it's just a line from the antagonist in Ratatouille. It's not a critic's view of the profession.
I personally find people like Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, Pauline Kael, and Eileen Jones incredibly enjoyable to read. Some "creators" like Wes Anderson actually went to great lengths to get Kael's opinion.
One-upper posters are annoying, but barbs disguised as blandishments like Ratatouille's bug me even more.
I'd guess the real "we" is the writer of movies speaking through the character about their perspective on critics. So it would be not the critic's view of the profession, but the criticized's view. In this instance, that seemed helpful.
Criticism, like music, can be done poorly by nearly anyone and have little meaning, or by someone who has trained and studied carefully. Consider the source, I guess?
By the by: Did you really just criticize my critical quote on criticism? Recurse you, RodericDay!
I personally find people like Lester Bangs, Robert Christgau, Pauline Kael, and Eileen Jones incredibly enjoyable to read. Some "creators" like Wes Anderson actually went to great lengths to get Kael's opinion.
One-upper posters are annoying, but barbs disguised as blandishments like Ratatouille's bug me even more.