New York Flm Critics Awards

Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

anonymous wrote:It seems to me Armond White was trying to turn the awards dinner into a roast-type thing, only to come off as merely being snide and petty.
No, he was just being snide and petty. The man seems to have something seriously wrong with him. He's a contrarian just for he sake of being a contrarian, that's easy enough to see. But beyond that he lacks propriety. He acts like a spoiled brat.

Lisa Schwartzbaum's article may not be great writing but at least she had the guts to put her name on an article taking on this guy, knowing he's going to find some way to get back at her, while others either remain silent or cower behind anonymous whispers.
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Post by Uri »

Sabin wrote:And Braveheart used to be my favorite movie.

Though I don't want to be nitpicking (who am I kidding, now I'm both nitpicking and being hypocrite), but as far as I remember, Babe was your favorite film of '95, so I'm a little bit confused right now.




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ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

anonymous wrote:
ITALIANO wrote:I haven't read this man's dismissive review of The Social Network, and while instinctively I'd applaud him for having an independent view on what most American critics lazily consider a masterpiece, negative just for the sake of being negative has never been my approach so I hope it's not his case either.
Well, last year, when The Hurt Locker was just making its rounds at the various film festivals, Armond White gave it a glowing review. Then later on, after all the critics sang their praises and it started winning awards, White started to write in negative jabs on it, culminating in it being panned in his year-end BETTER THAN list -- and without even acknowledging the existence of his previous rave review.
Oh ok, so he's this kind of person. I guess this attitude can make him quite famous and talked-about though.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

ITALIANO wrote:I haven't read this man's dismissive review of The Social Network, and while instinctively I'd applaud him for having an independent view on what most American critics lazily consider a masterpiece, negative just for the sake of being negative has never been my approach so I hope it's not his case either.
Well, last year, when The Hurt Locker was just making its rounds at the various film festivals, Armond White gave it a glowing review. Then later on, after all the critics sang their praises and it started winning awards, White started to write in negative jabs on it, culminating in it being panned in his year-end BETTER THAN list -- and without even acknowledging the existence of his previous rave review.
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Post by Sabin »

(Damien @ Jan. 12 2011,1:46)
But Ethan would never say such a thing. The only people I've ever heard him criticize in public are Republicans.

Armond White is a Republican. And he's Baptist or something.
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Post by ITALIANO »

I haven't read this man's dismissive review of The Social Network, and while instinctively I'd applaud him for having an independent view on what most American critics lazily consider a masterpiece, negative just for the sake of being negative has never been my approach so I hope it's not his case either.
But even if one is the most perceptive and intelligent critic around, when your duty is to officially represent a group that you are part of, your personal behavior should certainly be less petty, less individual even.

But it's true that Schwarzbaum's article could have been written by my 13-year-old niece.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

It seems to me Armond White was trying to turn the awards dinner into a roast-type thing, only to come off as merely being snide and petty.
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Post by Damien »

Okri wrote:
“Surely, Kushner, whose great play, Angels in America, showed how spiritual and social connections transformed lust and envy to family, friends, and country, has a moral responsibility to explain why The Social Network is good."
This is priceless.
I wish Kushner had. I've read a couple dozen reviews of the movie and many many blog posts about the film, and I still have seen no convincing argument as to why this is supposedly such a good film.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Post by Damien »

Sabin wrote:And Braveheart used to be my favorite movie.
Not to worry. There was a time when I thought Muscle Beach Party was one of the 20 greatest movies of all time.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Post by Damien »

Sabin wrote:(Damien @ Posted on Jan. 11 2011,8:54)
The thing is, that clown Darren Aronofsky started things. Which isn't to say White wouldn't have acted up even without the prodding, but still, Aronofsky set the tone.
If Ethan Hawke said the same thing, you'd be applauding him.
But Ethan would never say such a thing. The only people I've ever heard him criticize in public are Republicans.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Post by Okri »

“Surely, Kushner, whose great play, Angels in America, showed how spiritual and social connections transformed lust and envy to family, friends, and country, has a moral responsibility to explain why The Social Network is good."


This is priceless.
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Post by Sabin »

And Braveheart used to be my favorite movie.

I'm a different man now than I was ten years ago, Tee. I don't say that defensively, but merely to reinforce that belief as the ticker counts down to thirty and my four roommates point out traces of grey in my hair. At least I don't like Lisa Schwarzbaum anymore, dagnabbit! I used to enjoy the humor in her prose, and now I find her as vanilla as everyone else who writes film criticism. I'm not embarrassed by liking her in the past, or anyone from Entertainment Weekly. It was an important part of my development. I'd argue that there's far more merit to an Owen Gleiberman review than a Lisa Schwarzbaum because at least the former's anti-intellectualism can yield some more offbeat perspectives, but there are few critics are reliably unimaginative as Lisa Schwarzbaum.

I guess there's no alternative but to say that I suppose I am an Armond White apologist, or at least as much as one can be. I disagree with him 80% of the time, I think he makes up his mind on what to like before sitting down, but I like some of where he comes from. He may very well be batshit insane but the role of a film critic is to educate, and there aren't many out there that seek to do so as he does. He comes from a place of faith, pop music, and nutty comparisons. The reason I'm a little more forgiving about Armond White than most is that he writes entertaining reviews in an era where not a lot of people do. I wouldn't call him one of my favorites but I think we need critics that draw literary allusions and Biblical allusions. He has a visible vendetta against what he perceives as historical and cultural myopia that is ignited by an inferiority complex. He really does think he's the last critic on Earth, that he's in The Stand or something.

I think we need more Armond Whites than Lisa Schwarzbaums because some of the Armond Whites are bound to randomly be incredibly right, and I will bring up his A.I. review because it's an incredibly important piece of film criticism that jumped the gun before anybody else. We need more critics that draw a line in the sand and say "I like what this guy does and you guys aren't getting it." However I don't like how he behaved. I don't care who started it. It's not Darren Aronofsky's job to behave graciously. It is Armond White's.

(Damien @ Posted on Jan. 11 2011,8:54)
The thing is, that clown Darren Aronofsky started things. Which isn't to say White wouldn't have acted up even without the prodding, but still, Aronofsky set the tone.

If Ethan Hawke said the same thing, you'd be applauding him.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Here's the AV Club version. Many of the same facts, but some additional details"


Armond White, notoriously contrarian film critic and argument for trolling as a viable career option, rarely gets the chance to express his ornery opinions to the faces of those whose work he so despises, so he really went all out at last night’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards. While hosting the ceremony, both as part of his regular duties as chairman and through some seeming “let’s get the homecoming queen drunk”-style ruse to breathe some bilious life into an otherwise staid year of critical consent and thus wreck the nice party, White did everything in the Armond White playbook to keep the attention squarely focused on himself—acting dismissive toward the films and actors being recognized and occasionally even openly insulting them, all while bathing in the negative attention like a preening professional wrestler.

Of course, doing so in such a public forum, in real time, was also a chance for the insulted to give it right back, as when director Darren Aronofsky of Black Swan—which White called “insipid” and an example of “white petulance” that lacked the narrative grounding of Kanye West’s “Runaway” video—appeared to recognize cinematographer Matthew Libatique, but paused to blast White first, saying, “I thought I was giving Armond White the compassion award, because if you don’t have something you should get it.” Aronofsky then added, “Seriously, keep it up because you give all of us another reason not to read New York Press.” Sensing he'd sowed some discontent, Aronofsky apologized for being “a dick”—not that White minded. Back at the podium, White mimed brushing dirt off his shoulders and cheerfully responded, “Hey, that's all right. Darren reads me. That's all I want. And because he reads me knows the truth.” Oh that Armond!

As with any efficient troll, that early sparring seemed to give White all the impetus he needed to keep laying out the bait, as when he introduced Blue Valentine’s Michelle Williams to present an award to Mark Ruffalo by talking at length about how he’d enjoyed Ruffalo’s work in 2007’s Reservation Road and Williams’ in 2004’s Land Of Plenty, deliberately side-stepping their most recent films. “Um, thanks, that was, like, 10 years ago,” Williams responded, according to some sources. “I'm not going to read any of your reviews of my other work, because you really had to reach.” (Other attendees quote her as saying, “I can't imagine what you've said about me since then if you had to go back that far to say something nice.”)

White pulled a similar move with Annette Bening, who was accepting the night’s Best Actress winner for The Kids Are All Right—a film that White hated for its depiction of a lesbian couple as so “unexcitingly ‘normal’…[they] might as well be heterosexual.” Once again, White all but omitted any mention of that film, instead rambling on about her performance in a film he did like, 2009’s Mother And Child, and choosing its co-star Kerry Washington to present Bening with her award. By that point, the divisiveness had apparently taken its toll on Bening, who reportedly was near tears as she “came close to lecturing critics for being mean little ****s,” even asking “something like, 'Can't we all just get along?’”

Near the end of the night, White introduced playwright Tony Kushner, who would present the Best Picture award to The Social Network, by saying, “Surely, Kushner, whose great play, Angels in America, showed how spiritual and social connections transformed lust and envy to family, friends, and country, has a moral responsibility to explain why The Social Network is good." Unfortunately, White neglected to regale the audience with his theory on why The Social Network failed in part thanks to the deficit of “instructive” Harvard veracity embodied by the 1986 C. Thomas Howell comedy Soul Man, but this was probably just as good.

Ending things on a high note, White did as any proper troll would and threw in an unprompted final dig at his supposed archenemies—namely director Noah Baumbach, whose publicity team disinvited White from Greenberg, sparking a weeks-long imbroglio that eventually led to White comparing the incident to “exactly what Communist cells do to anyone they disfavor,” adding, “This is how fascists operate,” and throwing in “it is also a racist lynching by white critics of a black critic” for good measure. In his closing remarks, White said, “I thank the circle for not awarding a single award to Greenberg”—which, in Armond White’s world, actually qualifies as a classy rejoinder.

Anyway, you can check out White’s list of “better-than” films that should have been recognized this year instead—with its attendant argument as to why True Grit is a lesser movie than Jonah Hex—by clicking here to go to his website. After all, that’s why he says that stuff.
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Post by Big Magilla »

It doesn't matter whether White or Schwartzbaum is the better critic. It doesn't matter whether Black Swan or The Social Network is worthy of all the awards they have won and may yet win. What does matter is civility, or more precisely, the lack of it.

Aronofsky's may have started it, but as host, White should have let it pass. Same goes for Michelle Williams, although I probably would have said the same thing in her place. What a rude, snide way of introducing someone.

Is White's tenure as Chairman over? Why did they elect him in the first place, given his history. Didn't they know how he might act?




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Post by Mister Tee »

Sabin wrote:Do we need more Armond Whites or Lisa Schwarzbaums?
Sabin, I've been around long enough to remember when you used to quote Schwarzbaum consistently. Are you singling her out for opprobrium to offset that? (Not that any of us should be held responsible for the enthusiasms of our youth)

I guess what I'd say -- maybe in line with what Okri's expressing -- is that, yes, the general run of critics (personified by plenty more than Schwarzbaum) is pretty dismal. But that Armond White isn't an antidote to that; he's just a different brand of poison.

Of course, given the range of opinion here, it's not as if we could come to any consensus on who a good critic would be.
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