Cancel culture shouldn't be celebrated. A boycott? Yes. A protest? Yes. Censorship? No.
It’s not censorship, Roman Polanski hasn’t made a movie anyone cared about strictly for its merits since at least The Ghost Writer which was like 10 years ago (and that’s being generous, really he hasn’t made anything of note in a good 17 years or so). This has nothing to do with his movies and everything to do with the idea that a convicted sex offender who drugged and raped a 13 year old before fleeing the continent to escape justice should not be allowed to continue his career as if nothing happened. Frankly, Polanski does deserve to be driven out of the industry whether his newest project is the next Citizen Kane or the next Troll 2.
The fact is that Hollywood doesn’t care about his crimes, they happily gave him an Oscar long after he drugged and raped a minor. Around that time hundreds (IIRC) of top names in Hollywood signed a petition asking that Polanski be pardoned in recognition of his artistic contributions to cinema. Think about that for a minute: decades later, Hollywood’s response was basically “yeah, he drugged and raped a kid, but he’s made some good movies so can we just give him a mulligan on the whole child rapist thing?” Since the film industry (especially in Europe) clearly has to be dragged kicking and screaming into showing a modicum of human decency here, it falls on everyone else to help drag them. Besides, I’m sure the movie will be released eventually, it doesn’t need to be exhibited at festivals nor is Polanski entitled to the use of platform they provide for movies that screen at them.
