• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Armond White in the National Review: 20 films that "destroyed art and social unity"

Status
Not open for further replies.

Kusagari

Member
If I remember correctly from some podcast I listened to with Armond White as a guest, he thinks the Transformers movies are works of art.

Which he couldn't detail or explain why he thinks that at all.

He can at least wing bullshit on movies he hates, but he fails miserably at explaining why he likes the trash he praises.
 

Reuenthal

Banned
Maybe he bashes what he likes and he praises what he dislikes. That would explain his transformers love and his hatred of many good films.
 
I kept it together, until I got to
14) A History of Violence (2005) — David Cronenberg’s new take on Ugly Americans blamed patriotic sadism.
This man is a shameless creature. History of Violence is beyond amazing. No words can describe.
 
For the fst time ever I actually agree with SOME of his opinions...

It's impossible not to agree with him sometimes because his opinions are so scattershot that one or two of them will inevitably coincide with your own through sheer probability.

I don't mind him, he's certainly *interesting*, he doesn't make me mad, and I don't care that talking about him fuels his engine... but all that said, I'm pretty sure he's gone from iconoclasm to pure incoherence over the years. It's not that I'm chafing at this list because I disagree with his thoughts--I literally don't know what he's talking about here.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Armond White getting his troll on, as always. This whole thing reads like
22791b2177d13afbaa49381fe26c649b.jpg


I wouldn't suggest anyone clicking through. It's literally just that list, and Armond White needs no more attention.

Reminds me of War Horse, a movie about a demonic horse that gets everyone it comes into contact with killed save for the one slow British country boy who raised it.
 

Burt

Member
Can someone explain the Bourne one to me? Does he think that the films got an arms contract or something? Or is he saying that if you want to portray something in a negative light it's unethical to be successful and/or portray the thing you're criticizing at all? Or is he generalizing audiences and saying that people who paid for the movie were all going to see some gung-ho American asskicking and that somehow makes the film morally bankrupt? Maybe he's talking about American cultural imperialism as an extension of foreign policy?

"Schindler's List made money off of the Holocaust! Nothing but soulless commercialized filth!"

The really wretched thing is that that's probably close to his actual opinion.
 
I really, really try to give him the benefit of the doubt, but when you read shit like this,

Precious (2009) coincided with Obama’s first year in office to revive racial condescension with the audacity of nope.

12 Years a Slave (2013) distorted the history of slavery while encouraging and continuing Hollywood’s malign neglect of slavery’s contemporary impact.

5) Wall-E (2008) — Nihilism made cute for children of all ages who know nothing about cultural history or how to sustain it.

9) Knocked Up (2007) — Judd Apatow’s comedy of bad manners attacked maturity and propriety.

The Dark Knight (2008) used the Batman myth to undermine heroism, overturn social mores, and embrace anarchy.

You wonder if he even bothered watching these films to completion. He's a troll until proven otherwise.
 

Lubricus

Member
From his Wikipedia entry, a writer described him:

What makes Armond’s reviews perversely fascinating is that he is so obviously intelligent, yet this intelligence has been harnessed to the warped imperatives of an increasingly frustrated personality. Where your average critical hack job is just banal, White’s ability to disconnect the dots exerts a kind of bizarro brilliance. Try to take any of his recent reviews as seriously as he insists and you’ll find yourself, like Alice and the Red Queen, running in hermeneutic circles, getting nowhere fast. It makes for mediocre criticism but lurid psychodrama.[76]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armond_White

I do not read his writings.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
I... Actually kind of agree with this one...

Did you actually watch United 93? It's hardly a "disaster movie" in any traditional sense.

Maybe World Trade Center is like this, but not United 93
 

harSon

Banned
My favorite living critic. He's not a good critic, but he's infinitely more entertaining than all of his contemporaries.
 

Zia

Member
At least Armond was right about A.I.

And why'd he get removed from RT? 90% of the reviews included on there are garbage, at least he's entertaining.
 

entremet

Member
Master troll is still at it

His Slashfilm appearances are comedy gold. And he's definitely interesting to read.
 
At least Armond was right about A.I.

And why'd he get removed from RT? 90% of the reviews included on there are garbage, at least he's entertaining.

He's entertaining, but he's insincere.

dramatis said:
I found it, on /Filmcast. It was actually primarily a podcast discussing Inception, but from 44:00 onwards Armond White comes on. For the first 10 minutes he shits on video games, and then around 56:00 the podcaster asks White about why he thinks Nolan is a hack but Michael Bay is a gifted visionary.

lol

Thanks a bunch. I'll definitely give this a listen at work later. I love Armond.
 
Can someone explain the Bourne one to me? Does he think that the films got an arms contract or something? Or is he saying that if you want to portray something in a negative light it's unethical to be successful and/or portray the thing you're criticizing at all? Or is he generalizing audiences and saying that people who paid for the movie were all going to see some gung-ho American asskicking and that somehow makes the film morally bankrupt? Maybe he's talking about American cultural imperialism as an extension of foreign policy?

"Schindler's List made money off of the Holocaust! Nothing but soulless commercialized filth!"

The really wretched thing is that that's probably close to his actual opinion.
armondwhiteisntinsane.jpg


I hope that answered your question(s).
 

ampere

Member
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/wptest/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/armondwhiteisntinsane.jpg[IMG]

I hope that answered your question(s).[/QUOTE]

Hahahaha if that list is real.

Harson pretty much has it right, the guy is 'entertaining' for how crazy he is.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
His grandiose statements of self-importance are adorable.
 

cheststrongwell

my cake, fuck off
I enjoyed Frost/Nixon, but some of the liberties they took weren't necessary. I had the same problem with that Adams series on HBO.

Dude needs to chill though.
 

Carcetti

Member
People are still seeking logic in his choices? It's pretty simple. He takes popular, quality movies and bashes them while advocating the worst tripe as art. He tries to disguise it with pseudointellectual jargon, and every time someone mentions his name, he gets more publicity from the outrage.

When people say he's a troll, they mean it literally.
 
There's a good reason why this guy is an outcast in the critics community, well two reasons.This one and this one.

During the 79th New York Film Critics Circle Awards on Jan. 6, White reportedly yelled expletives at McQueen when he accepted the award for best director. White was quoted as loudly calling McQueen an "embarrassing doorman and garbage man." The comments did not audibly reach the front of the banquet hall, and McQueen did not appear to hear or respond to the comments during his acceptance speech.

Thanks to Adam Sandler, Armond White is back in the news. The former New York Press film critic who notoriously loves almost universally panned movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Jonah Hex while hating, and often being the sole voice of opposition against, beloved films like Inception and Toy Story 3, last week published a rave review for Jack & Jill, Sandler’s latest film which has gotten some of the worst reviews of his career. That film currently stands at a putrid 3% on Rotten Tomatoes but White’s review has not been included.

armond-white.jpg


Problem?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom