Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
01-13-11, 07:50 PM
#51
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 688
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
The problem is, his reviews are not serious film criticism, they're pseudo-intellectual bullshit. I had an editing teacher in college just like him. He manages to twist everything to his agenda, instead of judging the films on their own merits.
And I should probably say this now, because I'm sure it'll get pounced on: I have no problem with intellectual discussions of films or any subject. In fact, I welcome it. I'm rejecting the assumption that White is writing with any semblance of intellectual rigor.
And I should probably say this now, because I'm sure it'll get pounced on: I have no problem with intellectual discussions of films or any subject. In fact, I welcome it. I'm rejecting the assumption that White is writing with any semblance of intellectual rigor.
"If it is true that The Social Network defines the decade, as an ad blurb states, then that’s just an accident of its shortcomings. We need to look deeper: It inadvertently defines an era when subterfuge and reprehensible behavior are accepted as a social norm—especially if it proves lucrative. No wonder mainstream media minions have flipped for The Social Network; they recognize the fiat of technological privilege."
You may not agree but that's a valid point of view and certainly worth considering.
As far as twisting everything to an agenda and judging a film on it's own merits, I don't think this is entirely possible all the time. Criticism is all about agenda, agenda being your own tastes, point of view/sociological perspective. It's not an objective endeavor in the least. I'm sure his view of The Social Network has been influenced by his own experiences regarding internet bullying. Which is entirely to be expected and fair game.
01-13-11, 07:56 PM
#52
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 688
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
via dictionary.com on it's definition of trash...
Little man...is a crappy film. With no redeeming qualities as a film. It's filmmaking bears no surprise or growth in the "art" of film. The plot and execution of it is predictable and boring. Everything's pretty much by the book in it's filming and editing. Nothing fantastic. I'm pretty sure they were going out there to make a good comedy. It's not. It's not the first time The Wayans failed at making a good comedy.
Inception's filmmaking takes surprising techniques in it's execution. And also furthers an influence in filmmaking construction and execution of what can be done in the frame. The plot isn't deep or excessive in depth but it's execution was pretty dang good.
Black Swan has a damn fine performance by Portman. While the plot is on basis: Obsession w/ one's art...again it's execution of a growing obsession in the art and madness from it is damn well presented. Within the frame it garners a lot of detail. The direction of it is extremely well controlled especially w/ the subject matter. A subject matter where one could easily fall into failure. The visual detail is well constructed as well. The editing is extremely well executed.
Little man...is a crappy film. With no redeeming qualities as a film. It's filmmaking bears no surprise or growth in the "art" of film. The plot and execution of it is predictable and boring. Everything's pretty much by the book in it's filming and editing. Nothing fantastic. I'm pretty sure they were going out there to make a good comedy. It's not. It's not the first time The Wayans failed at making a good comedy.
Inception's filmmaking takes surprising techniques in it's execution. And also furthers an influence in filmmaking construction and execution of what can be done in the frame. The plot isn't deep or excessive in depth but it's execution was pretty dang good.
Black Swan has a damn fine performance by Portman. While the plot is on basis: Obsession w/ one's art...again it's execution of a growing obsession in the art and madness from it is damn well presented. Within the frame it garners a lot of detail. The direction of it is extremely well controlled especially w/ the subject matter. A subject matter where one could easily fall into failure. The visual detail is well constructed as well. The editing is extremely well executed.
01-13-11, 07:56 PM
#53
Banned
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Formerly known as "Solid Snake PAC"/Denton, Tx
Posts: 39,239
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes
on
4 Posts
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
And to be honest...I don't know who's what race when it comes to critics. Ebert and Siskel were pretty much the only critics I knew and actually saw that they were white. Race has nothing to do with our opinion of him...unless some of us hate black people. ESPECIALLY black people w/ attitude. Those fucking bastards taking all the hate for themselves.
You guys get a lot of mileage out of that one huh?
You guys take critical opinions way too personally...I love reading film criticism and I never hated a critic for writing a negative column about a movie I love. I would dislike a critic because of shallow, stupid writing but not differences of opinion. I disagree with lots of Armonds reviews but his columns are the cream of the crop when it comes to serious film criticism. Especially compared with 99% of the rotten tomatoes crowd. It's like the Romper Room over there.
You guys take critical opinions way too personally...I love reading film criticism and I never hated a critic for writing a negative column about a movie I love. I would dislike a critic because of shallow, stupid writing but not differences of opinion. I disagree with lots of Armonds reviews but his columns are the cream of the crop when it comes to serious film criticism. Especially compared with 99% of the rotten tomatoes crowd. It's like the Romper Room over there.
Last edited by Solid Snake; 01-13-11 at 08:09 PM.
01-13-11, 08:08 PM
#54
Banned
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Formerly known as "Solid Snake PAC"/Denton, Tx
Posts: 39,239
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes
on
4 Posts
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
In the frame..as...in the frame. What you see in the box of pictures ie the visuals of the film. What is actually done on set at the time of filming. You don't think for ex: the hallway sequence w/ JGL has some damn fine work done in the frame? That's hard as hell I bet to pull off. And it is. Also considering how much work Nolan likes to have as a practical element onscreeen that's also worth recognizing in a (cliched statement coming...now) when everyone loves to just have a shit ton of CG in that frame. Not that he doesn't use CG, cuz he does. But he uses it when it's needed in order to add some kind of dimension not possible in a physical plane.
01-13-11, 08:13 PM
#55
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 688
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
In the frame..as...in the frame. What you see in the box of pictures ie the visuals of the film. What is actually done on set at the time of filming. You don't think for ex: the hallway sequence w/ JGL has some damn fine work done in the frame? That's hard as hell I bet to pull off. And it is. Also considering how much work Nolan likes to have as a practical element onscreeen that's also worth recognizing in a (cliched statement coming...now) when everyone loves to just have a shit ton of CG in that frame. Not that he doesn't use CG, cuz he does. But he uses it when it's needed in order to add some kind of dimension not possible in a physical plane.
01-13-11, 08:15 PM
#56
Banned by request
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
I'll have to agree to disagree. I just read his review of The Social Network and I find it very perceptive. I didn't find any traces of pseudo-intellectual bullshit. I particularly like this observation:
"If it is true that The Social Network defines the decade, as an ad blurb states, then that’s just an accident of its shortcomings. We need to look deeper: It inadvertently defines an era when subterfuge and reprehensible behavior are accepted as a social norm—especially if it proves lucrative. No wonder mainstream media minions have flipped for The Social Network; they recognize the fiat of technological privilege."
You may not agree but that's a valid point of view and certainly worth considering.
As far as twisting everything to an agenda and judging a film on it's own merits, I don't think this is entirely possible all the time. Criticism is all about agenda, agenda being your own tastes, point of view/sociological perspective. It's not an objective endeavor in the least. I'm sure his view of The Social Network has been influenced by his own experiences regarding internet bullying. Which is entirely to be expected and fair game.
"If it is true that The Social Network defines the decade, as an ad blurb states, then that’s just an accident of its shortcomings. We need to look deeper: It inadvertently defines an era when subterfuge and reprehensible behavior are accepted as a social norm—especially if it proves lucrative. No wonder mainstream media minions have flipped for The Social Network; they recognize the fiat of technological privilege."
You may not agree but that's a valid point of view and certainly worth considering.
As far as twisting everything to an agenda and judging a film on it's own merits, I don't think this is entirely possible all the time. Criticism is all about agenda, agenda being your own tastes, point of view/sociological perspective. It's not an objective endeavor in the least. I'm sure his view of The Social Network has been influenced by his own experiences regarding internet bullying. Which is entirely to be expected and fair game.
I've read Armond White's reviews, and I've listened to David Fincher speak about his films. The idea that White has a more penetrating insight into them than Fincher himself does is laughable (and I will say that there are directors out there who are not as perceptive as their critics, but Fincher is not one of them). White missed the point with The Social Network just as badly as Ebert, a far more noteworthy critic (and not just because of his popularity), missed the mark with Fight Club.
01-13-11, 08:20 PM
#58
Banned by request
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
No more than Citizen Kane glorifies Charles Foster Kane.
To be less oblique: Anyone who achieves as much as William Hearst or Mark Zuckerberg does (and whether or not you like Facebook, there's no denying the achievement of how pervasive it has become in society) is going to be seen, at times, as a glorious figure, due to their ability to do something others cannot. But if you thought that The Social Network glorified Zuckerberg, or by extension, Sean Parker, you must have been watching that movie while asleep. Or, as I believe was the case with White, with an agenda.
To be less oblique: Anyone who achieves as much as William Hearst or Mark Zuckerberg does (and whether or not you like Facebook, there's no denying the achievement of how pervasive it has become in society) is going to be seen, at times, as a glorious figure, due to their ability to do something others cannot. But if you thought that The Social Network glorified Zuckerberg, or by extension, Sean Parker, you must have been watching that movie while asleep. Or, as I believe was the case with White, with an agenda.
01-13-11, 08:30 PM
#59
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
I hear he has a club, lives under a bridge and eats the bones of children.
Trying to stand up for Armond White is like trying to stand up for Josef Mengele.
As heard about Josef Mengele- "Well, I find Dr. Mengele to be quite intelligent. Sure, his ways are frowned on by some but he is a man who really sees the bigger picture. I find him to be a superb genius."
Trying to stand up for Armond White is like trying to stand up for Josef Mengele.
As heard about Josef Mengele- "Well, I find Dr. Mengele to be quite intelligent. Sure, his ways are frowned on by some but he is a man who really sees the bigger picture. I find him to be a superb genius."
01-13-11, 08:35 PM
#61
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 688
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
No more than Citizen Kane glorifies Charles Foster Kane.
To be less oblique: Anyone who achieves as much as William Hearst or Mark Zuckerberg does (and whether or not you like Facebook, there's no denying the achievement of how pervasive it has become in society) is going to be seen, at times, as a glorious figure, due to their ability to do something others cannot. But if you thought that The Social Network glorified Zuckerberg, or by extension, Sean Parker, you must have been watching that movie while asleep. Or, as I believe was the case with White, with an agenda.
To be less oblique: Anyone who achieves as much as William Hearst or Mark Zuckerberg does (and whether or not you like Facebook, there's no denying the achievement of how pervasive it has become in society) is going to be seen, at times, as a glorious figure, due to their ability to do something others cannot. But if you thought that The Social Network glorified Zuckerberg, or by extension, Sean Parker, you must have been watching that movie while asleep. Or, as I believe was the case with White, with an agenda.
"Kane was not about a brat’s betrayal, but about a sensitive braggart’s psychological and philosophical shift inward. The Social Network is more like Hollywood’s classic film industry self-romance The Bad and the Beautiful. Yet that Kane-lite film never excused its bad-boy protagonist’s sins and ended magnanimously by converging his three injured parties’ points of view into one beautifully clarifying narrative. It admitted our cultural compromises; this is TV-trite. In The Social Network, creepiness is heroized."
01-13-11, 08:37 PM
#62
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 688
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
01-13-11, 08:39 PM
#63
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 688
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
I hear he has a club, lives under a bridge and eats the bones of children.
Trying to stand up for Armond White is like trying to stand up for Josef Mengele.
As heard about Josef Mengele- "Well, I find Dr. Mengele to be quite intelligent. Sure, his ways are frowned on by some but he is a man who really sees the bigger picture. I find him to be a superb genius."
Trying to stand up for Armond White is like trying to stand up for Josef Mengele.
As heard about Josef Mengele- "Well, I find Dr. Mengele to be quite intelligent. Sure, his ways are frowned on by some but he is a man who really sees the bigger picture. I find him to be a superb genius."
01-13-11, 08:39 PM
#64
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
White's Better-Than List for 2010. The existance of this is proof that he's a troll. He didn't make a list of overlooked films to recognize work that didn't get enough attention; he just wants another excuse to slam well reviewed films. And in the case of The Social Network, he has to slam it three times.
http://www.nypress.com/article-22020...list-2010.html
Does White really think that Fincher sentimentalized FB and/or Zuckerberg? What movie did he see?
http://www.nypress.com/article-22020...list-2010.html
Better-Than List 2010
The Social Network is unfriended, Annette Bening is the best mother and Todd Solondz's dark satire trumps a king's stutter in ARMOND WHITE's annual reassessment of the year's top films.
By Armond White
. . . . . . .
Mainstream Consensus names The Social Network the film of the year but everybody knows it lacks the power and popularity of true consensus-making films like On the Waterfront, The Godfather, E.T. and Saving Private Ryan. The questionable unanimity around TSN proves the disconnect between pundits and the public and exposes how so-called critics' tendency to flatter their own caste fails to grasp genuine film art.
This year's Better-Than List provides an opportunity to see how a great year for movies, highlighted by a renaissance of cinema's Old Masters—from Resnais and Bellocchio to Chabrol and Haile Gerima—has been obscured by the media preference for slick new images of its own noxious, select kind. The Social Network rewards immorality, but this list knows better.
Wild Grass > The Social Network
Alain Resnais concocted one of the year's two best films with a constantly inventive fantasia on our common idiosyncrasynot polarized like the high-tech bullying that David Fincher burnishes and sentimentalizes.
Vincere > Carlos
Marco Bellocchio, still vital, still relevant, explores the neuroses of mass hysteria via film, opera and sexual magnetism. One of the year's two best films, this political psychological drama embarrasses Olivier Assayas' terrorist chic commitment to nothing.
Mother and Child > The Kids Are All Right
Rodrigo Garcia delves into the meaning of community though basic female experience (Naomi Watts, Annette Bening and Kerry Washington, all brilliant). He digs deeper into sex, community and local politics than Lisa Cholodenko's facile, P.C., button-pushing lesbian sitcom.
Life During Wartime > The King's Speech
Todd Solondz, America's toughest satirist, posits post-9/11 forgiveness and takes the temperature of the zeitgeist; it is the year's most provocative film, but the Anglophiliac celebration of England's George VI on the brink of WWII is the year's tiredest.
Another Year > The Social Network
Mike Leigh looks at the middle-aged need to connect sympathetically, exquisitely, while Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's TV-glib script reduces human relations to a sophomoric power grab.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World > Inception
Edgar Wright finds a funny, sexy, visually exciting way to illustrate the mind while Christopher Nolan bends the frame—and fanboys—into mindlessness.
The Girl on the Train > Winter's Bone
André Téchiné transposes the Tawana Brawley incident to France for a global tale of adolescent need vs. a pandering hillbilly Precious.
Ondine > Black Swan
Neil Jordan shows the importance of myth and faith in an Irish romantic epic so visually ravishing (shot by Christopher Doyle) it feels absolutely new, but Aronofsky rips-off Repulsion and The Red Shoes to terrify and excite the ignorant, faithless and over-cultured.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole > Toy Story 3
Zack Snyder's such a compelling visionary he can credibly turn owls into human surrogates while resurrecting the moral meaning of narrative; Toy Story 3 is a full-length commercial for dupes who mistake merchandizing for culture.
Teza > White Material
Haile Gerima dramatizes a young Ethiopian's awakening conscience while tracing the modern history of Europe's impact on colonial political thought. Gerima's deep feeling contrasts Claire Denis' wacky white guilt and death wish.
Takers & The Fighter > The Town
David O. Russell and John Luessenhop find ethnic vitality in street history and genre heroics, but Ben Affleck's trite condescension only finds degrading ethnic and genre stereotypes.
Easier With Practice > Easy A
Kyle Patrick Alvarez sensitively depicts young adult sexual pressure but Easy A reduces the legacy of The Scarlet Letter to an insipid teen flick that cheers dishonesty and greed.
Please Give > Greenberg
Nicole Holofcener's best-yet film understands it's not all about "me," but Noah Baumbach advertises his own repugnant egotism, striking a chord with evil critics everywhere—but thankfully, not the public.
I Love You Phillip Morris > I Am Love
Directing team Glenn Ficarra and John Requa boldly assert gay love—truly progressive sexual and cultural politics featuring the performance of Jim Carrey's career—while Tilda Swinton showboats epicene, gay special pleading disguised in ersatz melodrama.
Jonah Hex > True Grit
Jimmy Hayward's neo-Western—written by unsung geniuses Neveldine-Taylor—is more stirring than even the Coen Brothers' very-good remake.
Inspector Bellamy > Blue Valentine
Claude Chabrol's sensibility—and epitaph—finds the full range of life experience in a detective's duty to wife, family and the world. It corrects Blue Valentine's immature sex obsession.
City Island > The Social Network
Gotta have at the Facebook movie once again, if only to counter the fallacious consensus that no other movie dealt with the Internet phenomenon. Ray De Felitta's emotionally large family comedy and Andy Garcia's warm comeback performance epitomized timeless, non-cyber interfacing.
The Social Network is unfriended, Annette Bening is the best mother and Todd Solondz's dark satire trumps a king's stutter in ARMOND WHITE's annual reassessment of the year's top films.
By Armond White
. . . . . . .
Mainstream Consensus names The Social Network the film of the year but everybody knows it lacks the power and popularity of true consensus-making films like On the Waterfront, The Godfather, E.T. and Saving Private Ryan. The questionable unanimity around TSN proves the disconnect between pundits and the public and exposes how so-called critics' tendency to flatter their own caste fails to grasp genuine film art.
This year's Better-Than List provides an opportunity to see how a great year for movies, highlighted by a renaissance of cinema's Old Masters—from Resnais and Bellocchio to Chabrol and Haile Gerima—has been obscured by the media preference for slick new images of its own noxious, select kind. The Social Network rewards immorality, but this list knows better.
Wild Grass > The Social Network
Alain Resnais concocted one of the year's two best films with a constantly inventive fantasia on our common idiosyncrasynot polarized like the high-tech bullying that David Fincher burnishes and sentimentalizes.
Vincere > Carlos
Marco Bellocchio, still vital, still relevant, explores the neuroses of mass hysteria via film, opera and sexual magnetism. One of the year's two best films, this political psychological drama embarrasses Olivier Assayas' terrorist chic commitment to nothing.
Mother and Child > The Kids Are All Right
Rodrigo Garcia delves into the meaning of community though basic female experience (Naomi Watts, Annette Bening and Kerry Washington, all brilliant). He digs deeper into sex, community and local politics than Lisa Cholodenko's facile, P.C., button-pushing lesbian sitcom.
Life During Wartime > The King's Speech
Todd Solondz, America's toughest satirist, posits post-9/11 forgiveness and takes the temperature of the zeitgeist; it is the year's most provocative film, but the Anglophiliac celebration of England's George VI on the brink of WWII is the year's tiredest.
Another Year > The Social Network
Mike Leigh looks at the middle-aged need to connect sympathetically, exquisitely, while Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's TV-glib script reduces human relations to a sophomoric power grab.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World > Inception
Edgar Wright finds a funny, sexy, visually exciting way to illustrate the mind while Christopher Nolan bends the frame—and fanboys—into mindlessness.
The Girl on the Train > Winter's Bone
André Téchiné transposes the Tawana Brawley incident to France for a global tale of adolescent need vs. a pandering hillbilly Precious.
Ondine > Black Swan
Neil Jordan shows the importance of myth and faith in an Irish romantic epic so visually ravishing (shot by Christopher Doyle) it feels absolutely new, but Aronofsky rips-off Repulsion and The Red Shoes to terrify and excite the ignorant, faithless and over-cultured.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole > Toy Story 3
Zack Snyder's such a compelling visionary he can credibly turn owls into human surrogates while resurrecting the moral meaning of narrative; Toy Story 3 is a full-length commercial for dupes who mistake merchandizing for culture.
Teza > White Material
Haile Gerima dramatizes a young Ethiopian's awakening conscience while tracing the modern history of Europe's impact on colonial political thought. Gerima's deep feeling contrasts Claire Denis' wacky white guilt and death wish.
Takers & The Fighter > The Town
David O. Russell and John Luessenhop find ethnic vitality in street history and genre heroics, but Ben Affleck's trite condescension only finds degrading ethnic and genre stereotypes.
Easier With Practice > Easy A
Kyle Patrick Alvarez sensitively depicts young adult sexual pressure but Easy A reduces the legacy of The Scarlet Letter to an insipid teen flick that cheers dishonesty and greed.
Please Give > Greenberg
Nicole Holofcener's best-yet film understands it's not all about "me," but Noah Baumbach advertises his own repugnant egotism, striking a chord with evil critics everywhere—but thankfully, not the public.
I Love You Phillip Morris > I Am Love
Directing team Glenn Ficarra and John Requa boldly assert gay love—truly progressive sexual and cultural politics featuring the performance of Jim Carrey's career—while Tilda Swinton showboats epicene, gay special pleading disguised in ersatz melodrama.
Jonah Hex > True Grit
Jimmy Hayward's neo-Western—written by unsung geniuses Neveldine-Taylor—is more stirring than even the Coen Brothers' very-good remake.
Inspector Bellamy > Blue Valentine
Claude Chabrol's sensibility—and epitaph—finds the full range of life experience in a detective's duty to wife, family and the world. It corrects Blue Valentine's immature sex obsession.
City Island > The Social Network
Gotta have at the Facebook movie once again, if only to counter the fallacious consensus that no other movie dealt with the Internet phenomenon. Ray De Felitta's emotionally large family comedy and Andy Garcia's warm comeback performance epitomized timeless, non-cyber interfacing.
01-13-11, 08:39 PM
#65
Banned by request
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
Did you even read the whole column? He's laid it out all out quite neatly. He even mention Kane, in addition to The Bad and the Beautiful in the last paragraph of the column:
"Kane was not about a brat’s betrayal, but about a sensitive braggart’s psychological and philosophical shift inward. The Social Network is more like Hollywood’s classic film industry self-romance The Bad and the Beautiful. Yet that Kane-lite film never excused its bad-boy protagonist’s sins and ended magnanimously by converging his three injured parties’ points of view into one beautifully clarifying narrative. It admitted our cultural compromises; this is TV-trite. In The Social Network, creepiness is heroized."
"Kane was not about a brat’s betrayal, but about a sensitive braggart’s psychological and philosophical shift inward. The Social Network is more like Hollywood’s classic film industry self-romance The Bad and the Beautiful. Yet that Kane-lite film never excused its bad-boy protagonist’s sins and ended magnanimously by converging his three injured parties’ points of view into one beautifully clarifying narrative. It admitted our cultural compromises; this is TV-trite. In The Social Network, creepiness is heroized."
01-13-11, 08:40 PM
#66
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
Here is my point.
True, AW is a critic but even if he has some generally good views or abilities, he ruins it all by how he uses and presents them.
If Mengele possessed any good traits as a Doctor, he ruined them by his atrocities.
White, to me is in the same vain, It's not that I NEVER agree with him, or find some of what he says at least on somewhat the right track, it's how he chooses to use his ability as a known critic, and for his clear fascination with being contrary.
His atrocities outweigh any fine points in his criticism.
True, AW is a critic but even if he has some generally good views or abilities, he ruins it all by how he uses and presents them.
If Mengele possessed any good traits as a Doctor, he ruined them by his atrocities.
White, to me is in the same vain, It's not that I NEVER agree with him, or find some of what he says at least on somewhat the right track, it's how he chooses to use his ability as a known critic, and for his clear fascination with being contrary.
His atrocities outweigh any fine points in his criticism.
01-13-11, 08:52 PM
#67
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
"deep or excessive in depth"
01-13-11, 08:53 PM
#69
Banned by request
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
Here is my point.
True, AW is a critic but even if he has some generally good views or abilities, he ruins it all by how he uses and presents them.
If Mengele possessed any good traits as a Doctor, he ruined them by his atrocities.
White, to me is in the same vain, It's not that I NEVER agree with him, or find some of what he says at least on somewhat the right track, it's how he chooses to use his ability as a known critic, and for his clear fascination with being contrary.
His atrocities outweigh any fine points in his criticism.
True, AW is a critic but even if he has some generally good views or abilities, he ruins it all by how he uses and presents them.
If Mengele possessed any good traits as a Doctor, he ruined them by his atrocities.
White, to me is in the same vain, It's not that I NEVER agree with him, or find some of what he says at least on somewhat the right track, it's how he chooses to use his ability as a known critic, and for his clear fascination with being contrary.
His atrocities outweigh any fine points in his criticism.
01-13-11, 09:02 PM
#70
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
Clearly, I don't find him on the same level as a Nazi for christs sake. I think the comparison is a valid point.
01-13-11, 09:23 PM
#72
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
01-13-11, 09:35 PM
#73
Banned by request
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
Did you even read the whole column? He's laid it out all out quite neatly. He even mention Kane, in addition to The Bad and the Beautiful in the last paragraph of the column:
"Kane was not about a brat’s betrayal, but about a sensitive braggart’s psychological and philosophical shift inward. The Social Network is more like Hollywood’s classic film industry self-romance The Bad and the Beautiful. Yet that Kane-lite film never excused its bad-boy protagonist’s sins and ended magnanimously by converging his three injured parties’ points of view into one beautifully clarifying narrative. It admitted our cultural compromises; this is TV-trite. In The Social Network, creepiness is heroized."
"Kane was not about a brat’s betrayal, but about a sensitive braggart’s psychological and philosophical shift inward. The Social Network is more like Hollywood’s classic film industry self-romance The Bad and the Beautiful. Yet that Kane-lite film never excused its bad-boy protagonist’s sins and ended magnanimously by converging his three injured parties’ points of view into one beautifully clarifying narrative. It admitted our cultural compromises; this is TV-trite. In The Social Network, creepiness is heroized."
Warhol turned trash into art.
01-13-11, 09:56 PM
#74
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
I posit that the fact that he chose Jonah Hex over True Grit proves how he's a hack. Jonah Hex was no movie, it was a series of ideas that were strung together by the character. There was no narrative structure and yet he complained that Black Swan's narrative structure was ill-defined, pointing to Kanye West's Runaway as a better example, which it's not.
Sure some of his babble can hit the point, just like a blind squirrel finds a nut. But the guy is a troll and to defend him as otherwise is to ignore factual proof of his trolling.
Sure some of his babble can hit the point, just like a blind squirrel finds a nut. But the guy is a troll and to defend him as otherwise is to ignore factual proof of his trolling.
01-13-11, 09:59 PM
#75
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Armond White Emcees NY Critics Awards, Insults Winners
Ultimately, the point I was trying to make about his review of The Social Network is that he's either missed the point of the film, in which case he's also missed the point of a lot of other movies and hides behind big words and political diatribes to cover for his lack of understanding, or he's willfully misinterpreting them in order to condemn them (or, for a movie like Jonah Hex, praise it). Either he's more moronic than the people he's condemning and playing a big bluff to hide it, or he's being intellectually dishonest. I guess it's possible that he's genuinely misunderstanding movies and condemning others for their inability to see like he does, but that doesn't make his criticism any more useful to me than if he were doing it solely to sell more papers.
Warhol turned trash into art.
Warhol turned trash into art.
I go back and forth with this. Sometimes he says something and I find myself agreeing in some principle but also wishing he would collapse at his desk ah la the animator in 'The Holy Grail', simply because he distorts things so freely.
Other times, he seems to have some vendetta and purposely takes the opposite view of logic, no matter how glaring the obviousness of the issue.
Moron or Liar...that is the question.
Again, the whole good review, bad review of 'The Hurt Locker' sums up Armond White as a contrarian, but also brings all of his criticisms into question. Are they truly what he wholeheartedly believes or are they simply a whim that changes depending upon other peoples perceptions?