Torrente against the film critics (and Torrente wins)

Santiago Segura has decided that he will not allow the last film in the "Torrente" saga to be shown to journalists in advance so that they can fulfill the usual practice of explaining the premieres of the week after having seen the films in question. The filmmaker assures that he is not doing it for any vendetta" against critics, but rather he wants to ensure that surprises, special guests, and other (supposed) attractions of this broadly sketched comedy are not revealed. On the other hand, some see it as an attempt to minimize what will probably be negative reviews of the film. It is not lost on anyone that Segura plays in the league of popular cinema of the Pajares & Esteso lineage; I don't see him competing with Bergman. Therefore, not even the most fervent unanimity of negative critical reviews in the press will make Segura stop selling a single ticket at the box office. However, the gesture represents a worrying snub to the press. And it is done by someone who walks on the razor's edge of parody: some will see his fascist policeman as a caricature that strips bare such miserable characters, but others will vindicate him as a Spanish true hero", capable of saying in public what the woke" (pronounce it wo-ke") dictatorship no longer allows to be said, as the very contrite guests of Pablo Motos repeat every night in prime time". Segura can make the hypocritical films he wants and premiere them as he pleases, because that is what creative freedom is for. However, saying that he does it to preserve the surprise sounds like an excuse, since a few hours later half the film will have already been spoiled on social media. And the contempt for critics worries me: if the professional and prescriptive gaze is lost in favor of social media, media education may take a step backward, and cinema that seeks to enrich the viewer will find fewer distribution windows. Long live purely entertaining films, but they should not come at the expense of stifling others.