Nollywood scriptwriter and actor Miriam Ogbonna has publicly spoken out against online film critics and social media reviewers, raising critical concerns over what she describes as overly harsh, destructive, and ungrounded movie critiques targeting Nigerian cinema productions.
In a passionate reaction shared via her official social media page, Miriam expressed deep frustration with digital content creators who assign extremely low scores to film releases without offering substantive artistic analysis. She argued that such dismissive commentary directly undermines the financial investments and relentless labor of filmmakers who commit millions of Naira to bring cinematic projects to life.
The scriptwriter emphasized that while film professionals do not expect every project to satisfy all audience expectations, actively discouraging viewers from watching films through arbitrary low ratings damages both the industry's commercial ecosystem and individual livelihoods.
"The way some of you REVIEW people’s work is TERRIBLE. Imagine if they did the same to your own work," Miriam stated. "Someone will invest millions to shoot a project, and you will rate it 1/10 and go on to telling people not to waste their time to watch it, and the stupid bitter followers you also have will join your bandwagon in tarnishing someone’s work without even watching it."
Miriam revealed that her public stance was triggered after she encountered an Instagram reviewer who scored a theatrical feature film 3/10 and explicitly urged moviegoers not to watch it. Disgusted by the lack of balanced feedback, she noted that she felt compelled to block the reviewer's page.
Drawing a contrast between local social media commentary and established international film criticism standards, Miriam observed that foreign reviewers typically deliver structured, reasoned breakdowns when a production falls short, whereas several local reviewers engage in sensationalised takedowns without plausible explanations.
"Why are some of you so wicked? This is someone’s livelihood. Yes, some movies won’t live up to your expectations, but rating it that low without any plausible reason and telling people not to watch? That is WITCHCRAFT!" Miriam added. "I have never seen a WHITE film reviewer rating movies so low without any GOOD explanation as to why it didn't work."
Her commentary has reignited an ongoing debate across the Nigerian entertainment landscape regarding the boundaries between legitimate, constructive film criticism and destructive online commentary, particularly as Nollywood continues its aggressive expansion across domestic cinema circuits and global streaming platforms.
