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Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse extends mercy to noted blogger/molester

I think the last time I heard something about AICN (that wasn't someone just mentioning it on GAF) was back in my pre-GAF days when I would visit shit like ComicBookMovie and think it was good. So probably around 2012-ish.
 

Ernest

Banned
Slightly unrelated, but AICN coming up made me think about it. I used to visit that site everyday like 10 years ago. Then it kind of started to gross me out so I stopped. Same with /Film and the /Filmcast. And AwardsDaily. And a bunch of others probably (CinemaSins, RedLetterMedia?). Is that just, like, how a relationship with a film website works these days? You read them until you realize they are kind of gross, or they collapse up their own asses, or are revealed to be pieces of shit, and then you stop? Is that just how this shit works?
Never thought about it, but you're totally right! I mean, I never followed the sites you named, but I had the same exact trajectory of different review sites over the last 15 years or so. Right now, I don't really follow any single one. I wonder why these organizations get so toxic as to end up like they all do.
 
Never thought about it, but you're totally right! I mean, I never followed the sites you named, but I had the same exact trajectory of different review sites over the last 15 years or so. Right now, I don't really follow any single one. I wonder why these organizations get so toxic as to end up like they all do.

I think (of course I do) that it has to do with the way they were built in the first place. It wasn't the most legitimate of endeavors in the first place, and the only reason they found any purchase was because nobody was really applying any rules or minding the store at all.

You had a bunch of men with an outlet that afforded them cheap, easy power for doing nothing more than commenting on, promoting, and appropriating intellectual property that wasn't theirs.

Whole groups of people basically only got into this shit because they figured they could get big enough online that someone in the system would legitimize them and hand them a check for it. And that dream (such as it was) kept getting stoked by the two or three people a year who managed to actually make that jump to some degree of success or another. And when that didn't happen for a lot of people, their weird little communities started collapsing. The center hollowed out due to a starved sense of self-importance.

Essentially: Old man-children only got older and less successful/necessary, and that corrodes whatever product they were putting out. So either you quit doing it and find something worthwhile, or you keep chasing that diminishing high until you just burn out completely.

Or you just grind for whatever's left no matter what and become some sort of stooped, Gru-lookin type of cellar dweller for the sake of maintaining your collectibles habit.
 
Shame it's taken all this to bring this stuff to the surface, but at least a clearer light it being shone on it all.

Hopefully it can lead to this shit not staying in the shadows, and can help uproot the toxicity that allows for it to persist.

Does anyone even browse AICN anymore? I haven't heard that name in like a decade at least.

Oddly, Frank Marshall seems to browse their website, but otherwise..
 
Slightly unrelated, but AICN coming up made me think about it. I used to visit that site everyday like 10 years ago. Then it kind of started to gross me out so I stopped. Same with /Film and the /Filmcast. And AwardsDaily. And a bunch of others probably (CinemaSins, RedLetterMedia?). Is that just, like, how a relationship with a film website works these days? You read them until you realize they are kind of gross, or they collapse up their own asses, or are revealed to be pieces of shit, and then you stop? Is that just how this shit works?

To paint with a broad brush, a lot of the dudes involved with these blogs and such are super insecure. So when they accrue enough power/attention, their fragile egos can’t manage it. And maybe it comes with the territory of following pop culture media rooted in adolescence. I don’t know. But there are plenty of writers that continue to be mature and thoughtful and not trip up over themselves.
 
To paint with a broad brush, a lot of the dudes involved with these blogs and such are super insecure. So when they accrue enough power/attention, their fragile egos can’t manage it. And maybe it comes with the territory of following pop culture media rooted in adolescence. I don’t know.

Nah, you hit on a lot of it in a lot less sentences than whatever I barfed up a few posts earlier.

That's basically 80-90% of it, really.
 
Just start a completely different thread dude


(I know Slashfilm is trash, but I'd thought the podcast was at least still okay. Haven't listened in a long time, are Devindra & David no longer doing it? If it's the full-on Sciretta show I can't imagine it stays good)

Dave and Devindra still do it, alongside Jeff Cannata. I really enjoy the cast, although any time Sciretta shows up on it (which is rare) I constantly roll my eyes.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
So when are you guys gonna start a film blog that's also a deconstruction of film blogs?

The Watchmen of film blogs

The accumulated filth of all their gropes and tweets will foam up about their waists and all the youtubers and bloggers will google me and post "Save us!"... and I'll tweet "no."
 

Dan-o

Member
Or they are too good for this world and are forced to close shop because people didn't want to visit a film site with actually insightful analysis.

#RIPDissolve

They were too good for the audience they served.
Damn. I never really visited the site... Is all their stuff archived, or... gone forever?

Anyway... the first time I heard about AICN was when Alien Resurrection came out. My local paper had an article, saying something like, "This movie isn't even out yet, but SOME fans have already seen it. Here's how!" and it was all about Knowles and how he got into press screenings or test screenings or whatever. It was interesting... But I never got into his site. Always hated the design and just didn't really like the style of writing.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Damn. I never really visited the site... Is all their stuff archived, or... gone forever?

Anyway... the first time I heard about AICN was when Alien Resurrection came out. My local paper had an article, saying something like, "This movie isn't even out yet, but SOME fans have already seen it. Here's how!" and it was all about Knowles and how he got into press screenings or test screenings or whatever. It was interesting... But I never got into his site. Always hated the design and just didn't really like the style of writing.

Don't forget his big role in The Faculty.
 

Risible

Member
The last time I heard anything about AICN was some shady crowdfunding thing that pissed a lot of people off.

How ANYONE was into AICN fucking baffled me for years. I never understood its popularity. Crappy writing and shitty personalities. It mystified me how it got to be so popular.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
How ANYONE was into AICN fucking baffled me for years. I never understood its popularity. Crappy writing and shitty personalities. It mystified me how it got to be so popular.

I couldn't stand Harry but there were actually several good writers that contributed to the site. The big thing was that the comments section was like one of the original nerd meccas and what kept most people going to the site, myself included, well after it had fallen out of the lime light.
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
How ANYONE was into AICN fucking baffled me for years. I never understood its popularity. Crappy writing and shitty personalities. It mystified me how it got to be so popular.
A big thing was they had a lot of scoops. Set pics, screenplays, early reviews. Eventually that stuff dried up though and all the site had was some (mostly, save Mr. Beaks) bad writers and the same news a dozen other aggregate sites were running.
 

SeanC

Member
Never really understood how AICN was, at one point, the premiere "film blog site" - the writing was awful from top to bottom. I wanted to mail them all copies of AP Style and Strunk and White just to say "hey...let's at least get basic writing down. Or at least be consistent in how you write."
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Never really understood how AICN was, at one point, the premiere "film blog site" - the writing was awful from top to bottom. I wanted to mail them all copies of AP Style and Strunk and White just to say "hey...let's at least get basic writing down. Or at least be consistent in how you write."

Weren't they basically just the first, which is a large part of how they got away with it? It felt like as soon as more sites cropped up no one cared about AICN anymore outside of the scoops.

Like a lot of online writing, the real problem is a total lack of editorial oversight.
 

jett

D-Member
How ANYONE was into AICN fucking baffled me for years. I never understood its popularity. Crappy writing and shitty personalities. It mystified me how it got to be so popular.

I was never into that website but it used to break a lot of news stories about nerdy-oriented movies.
 

Futureman

Member
I don't think I've looked at AICN since high school (graduated 2003), but I remember the reason I read it was because of leaks/rumors. I was really into what the next Batman movie would be around that time and AICN seemed to have some good dirt.

just looked at it for the first time in over a decade and... is that the same design??
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
I don't think I've looked at AICN since high school (graduated 2003), but I remember the reason I read it was because of leaks/rumors. I was really into what the next Batman movie would be around that time and AICN seemed to have some good dirt.

just looked at it for the first time in over a decade and... is that the same design??

*checks*

Yup, it is.
 

SeanC

Member
Weren't they basically just the first, which is a large part of how they got away with it? It felt like as soon as more sites cropped up no one cared about AICN anymore outside of the scoops.

Like a lot of online writing, the real problem is a total lack of editorial oversight.

Being shitty writers might have been fine early on, but the internet grew and film communities who put forth better writing soon cropped up. I just looked at the site again now and it's still written the exact same way. It never grew, just treaded water with shitty writing.
 
For clarification's sake, these are the tweets that dude was alluding to (instead of like... sharing them) regarding Knowles.

ul57Sg9.png

imkK8jI.png

sYeIZIi.jpg


So far as I can tell, I can't see shit from the Daily Beast about any of this, and the tweets by themselves read like... nothing?

Again, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Knowles got caught doing dumb shit, because he's fuckin dumb. But I don't know that any of this is really pointing at anything serious dropping tomorrow, unless I'm missing something else.
 

killroy87

Member
Slightly unrelated, but AICN coming up made me think about it. I used to visit that site everyday like 10 years ago. Then it kind of started to gross me out so I stopped. Same with /Film and the /Filmcast. And AwardsDaily. And a bunch of others probably (CinemaSins, RedLetterMedia?). Is that just, like, how a relationship with a film website works these days? You read them until you realize they are kind of gross, or they collapse up their own asses, or are revealed to be pieces of shit, and then you stop? Is that just how this shit works?

What did /Film and the /Filmcast do?

I don't really frequent the site, but I love the /Filmcast quite a bit, and think Dave/Devindra/Jeff are great hosts. I stopped going to the site when the articles became suuuuper clickbaity, and Peter using the site's official twitter handle as his own account also pisses me off.
 
What did /Film and the /Filmcast do?

I don't really frequent the site, but I love the /Filmcast quite a bit, and think Dave/Devindra/Jeff are great hosts. I stopped going to the site when the articles became suuuuper clickbaity, and Peter using the site's official twitter handle as his own account also pisses me off.
Yeah just want to echo that the /Filmcast is still great and Dave/Devindra/Jeff are some of the good ones. Love 'em and will follow them wherever they go.

Peter actually his own daily /film podcast now where he just regurgitates the days headlines (which are frequently regurgitated themselves). Really not sure what the point of that one is. I listened to one where they gave tips to a listener on how to get into writing about film, and his advice was literally to learn how to hustle and get clicks.
 
So is this connected to Faraci in any way or is this a completely separate scandal?

It's connected in the sense that the fallout from the Faraci situation has lead to some house-cleaning.

Whether or not the rumors are true, the whole thing is a bummer. I'll admit to no small amount of schadenfreude when the Devin thing first broke, but the continued developments have soured that completely.
 

-griffy-

Banned
What did /Film and the /Filmcast do?

I don't really frequent the site, but I love the /Filmcast quite a bit, and think Dave/Devindra/Jeff are great hosts. I stopped going to the site when the articles became suuuuper clickbaity, and Peter using the site's official twitter handle as his own account also pisses me off.
It just never really jived with me. One of those things where when they are saying stuff you agree with you’re like “Right on” and when they are saying stuff you disagree with they become insufferable. Eventually the latter just got in the way too much and I dropped it. Had no idea Cannata was on now.

Might be Dave come to think of it. I dropped Cast of Kings pretty quick too.
 

border

Member
AICN was one of the first film blogs to have a comment section. And here we are 20 years later and the quality of blog comments has not improved a lick.

I'm curious what skeletons are in their closet. It seems like they're too irrelevant to wield much evil influence.
 

Slayven

Member
AICN was one of the first film blogs to have a comment section. And here we are 20 years later and the quality of blog comments has not improved a lick.

I'm curious what skeletons are in their closet. It seems like they're too irrelevant to wield much evil influence.
Would Knowles be considered the first internet infleuncer(god i hate that word)?

Back when i was so young and innocent I was shocked at the garbage posted there. In that fact they were lightyears ahead of the trend
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Would Knowles be considered the first internet infleuncer(god i hate that word)?

Probably. He was definitely the first Internet Person I remember hitting the mainstream. He was on Ebert's show IIRC, and there was a brief period where Hollywood really courted him. He's arguably a bigger name than DF, even though Knowles' career seems in the tank while DF (pre-one year ago) was possibly going places.
 
Harry's just kinda gross in general. I can't think of anything specifically sexist off the top of my head.

It's connected in the sense

In the sense that it might not even be connected, the guy you were basing this on apparently doesn't have shit but an ability to get kicked out of facebook groups for asking questions in a shitty manner. Where'd you even get that this was going to be a Daily Beast story anyway?

If anyone actually had anything why would they wait to post it on top of that? An expose on what a piece of shit Harry Knowles can be isn't exactly the sort of story you count down to for maximum impressions or whatever.
 
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