Norm de Plume

I don't know much about the guy, but I do have a few old National Society of Film Critics books, in which some reviews of his appear, and he seems like an intelligent reviewer who has a race chip on his shoulder. He works racism into many of his reviews.

Ash Ketchum

Hey, that's MY line!

And this is YOUR line:

Sondheim

I've heard he used to be a pretty decent critic, but in the last few years he's kind of lost it (though he still has a handful of defenders, many who seem attracted to him for his dislike of certain directors, such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan, who are currently well liked by critics and the general film community.) He's a master at making irrelevant comparisons (such as, say, comparing "Black Swan" unfavorably to a Kanye music video or comparing "Mr. 3000" to a Bresson film) and of insulting everyone who disagrees with him (he really likes to use "hipster" and "nihilist" as epithets, though he's made it abundantly clear that he has no idea what either means.) He's also a really poor writer, but that's true of a lot of critics. He does occasionally make a good point, but it's usually drowned in a sea of non-sequiturs, mindless attacks on fans of a film or director, and various baseless assertions.

Of course, equally annoying are the Rotten Tomatoes hordes who fill the comments section of the NY Press site with idiotic and racist remarks every time he writes a negative review of a well-liked film.

PopcornTreeCt

I don't get this forum's fascination with him.

Kal-El

+100

sauce07

He's like the movie geeks archenemy, we were born to hate him.

Numanoid

More like he's the ultimate troll that film geeks keep alive by reacting to him.

nando820

Groucho

Please, keep your personal attacks against Buttmunker to yourself!

sauce07

Who is that? I've blocked all memories involving that man, some sort of post-traumatic stress.

Gunde

Then stay out of the threads.

Travis McClain

I can't speak for anyone else, but I subscribe to the philosophy that even a broken clock is right twice a day. More often than not, it's pretty easy to tell when White hasn't been right, but every now and again you have to kind of explore what he's saying to find out, "Is this one of those times?"

It would be too easy to outright dismiss the guy. I'm of the mind that being pushed to explore and defend my position is healthy and generally speaking I'm in favor of that kind of intellectual prodding. It's true that White generally rebuffs any disagreement by saying we're unqualified to even question him, and if I were in an actual discussion with the guy I don't know that I'd be able to maintain that academic state of mind. In real life, though, he's just a guy who writes reviews that serve as a springboard for some occasionally interesting reflections.

RocShemp

I had a a lot of fun watching From Paris With Love. I haven't watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I've never heard of the rest of the movies on his list.

If not for this forum, I wouldn't know he existed.

The Klan sure has some mighty fancy sheets these days.

Supermallet

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was my favorite film of the year (although I would say the best two films of the year are The Social Network and Black Swan), so kudos to Armond White or something.

Daytripper

Was waiting for this.....

DaveyJoe

I'm surprised it took so long. I've only heard positive feedback for Scott Pilgrim, it's 80% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, so I was pretty surprised to see the negative reactions in this thread.

Daytripper

No, I meant from just Daniel. But I am surprised to see any negative responses. Clearly they haven't seen the film. Or have no taste

TheySentYou

i just watched Scott Pilgrim... and i didn't like it.

i think the worst part was getting to the 20-minute point realizing that i was going to have to sit through 6 more fucking fights with evil ex's. glad to know i'm still pretty opposite to Armand White.

nando820

I liked Scott Pilgrim but its more style over substance. Not that substance was what they were shooting for but I never felt any real tension in the fights or got see what Scott saw in Ramona that made her special. You see you gotta make me care about the characters for me to want to see them fight through obstacles. DBZ had simple characters but the build ups were pretty fucking awesome. Anyways loved the soundtrack and comedy in it.

So before I get the "when did this become a.....thread" this White brother is wrong!

superdeluxe

No, only Armond White gets that treatment.

islandclaws

At least he showed Solondz some love...