12 Common Movie Criticisms That Make No Sense

8. "Nothing Happens"

This tends to be a younger-skewing complaint that you'll hear a lot about character-driven dramas, that "nothing happens" simply because a film is focused less on plot and overt incident, and more on the people within the world.

Take No Country for Old Men, a film which toyed with expectations of what a thriller film could be, by actively denying the audience much of the bloody catharsis they expected, especially in the third act.

This caused many casual viewers to simply dub the film "empty", but if you were at all paying attention to what the characters said and did, a whole hell of a lot happened in the film.

Unfortunately those who tend to stick to big-budget multiplex fare expect plot with a capital P and tons of action, and so anything that diverges from that model is both alien and wrong.

Few people with a real interest in film would dare make this complaint, but if you're talking with your more casually-minded family members or acquaintances, it's likely to come up every now and then.