Armond White feels he's not getting enough attention lately, so...

[Sawyer]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/banned-critic-new-york-film-761089

 

[Black Narcissus]

With Ebert's death, the film criticism community lost their King, and the this joker remains. Life is cruel.

 

[chamber-music]

Mark Kermode is my favourite film critic. Even if I don't agree with him at least he is entertaining with his impersonations and shout outs to his school buddy Jason Issacs.

 

[Rowsdower!]

White liked Man of Steel, so... I can't hate on him the way I used to.

However, he also wrote a thinkpiece where he basically said Chris Nolan should be held accountable for a guy massacring people in a movie theater showing TDKR so... yeah, f*** him.

 

[Schlosser85]

It's not like White actually believes that.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Mark Kermode is my favourite film critic. Even if I don't agree with him at least he is entertaining with his impersonations and shout outs to his school buddy Jason Issacs.

I like Kermode, but would it be too much to ask for a goddamn rating?

 

[Rowsdower!]

It's not like White actually believes that.

Yeah, but he still wrote it.

 

[Octoberist]

It's so funny how he denied that he heckled Steve McQueen at that one awards ceremony, and yet, there were so many witnesses. For God's sakes, he was at an awards ceremony. Surrounded by..People.

 

[Visualiza]

I like Kermode, but would it be too much to ask for a goddamn rating?

For some, yes.

No matter the flavor (numbers, stars, letters, etc.), a singular symbol is an arbitrary way of evaluating or summarizing a movie (or anything, for that matter). Nothing of value can really be gleaned from it other than our own preconception of what a '7', a 'B+', or '3.5 stars' means.

Although ratings and scores have been around forever, I still they serve to dumb down and trivialize serious analysis. Aggregating scores and ratings only serves to increase arbitrary nature of them even further. Nothing beats the actual content of a review.

 

[StarLord]

Mark Kermode is my favourite film critic. Even if I don't agree with him at least he is entertaining with his impersonations and shout outs to his school buddy Jason Issacs.

Kermode is awesome. Probably my fav too.

 

[Black Narcissus]

For some, yes.

No matter the flavor (numbers, stars, letters, etc.), a singular symbol is an arbitrary way of evaluating or summarizing a movie (or anything, for that matter). Nothing of value can really be gleaned from it other than our own preconception of what a '7', a 'B+', or '3.5 stars' means.

Although ratings and scores have been around forever, I still they serve to dumb down and trivialize serious analysis. Aggregating scores and ratings only serves to increase arbitration. Nothing beats the actual content of a review.

Well, it is very aggravating when he goes on and on...To praise the beginning of a film and talk about cliches, and then end on mutual note. Only to have that film show up on his best film list, after spending 2 minutes tearing it apart. Bloody hell! He is still the best post Ebert critic for me.

 

[Rocketman]

I will say, he has somewhat of a point to be made here (I hate the guy furiously, keep in mind). The idea of the "film critic" and Awards ceremonies, and Awards "judges" and "panels" - it's largely absurd, and it's BS. It's all a joke, including the Oscars. So is Rotten Tomatoes. The stuff is either paid off by bogus campaigns, or it's critiqued by people with very little qualifications. And beyond that, you can't measure art in facts. There's no measurement to say "This movie gets a 7.85," or, "This movie gets 88%". It's the most absurd thing I've ever seen.

The fact that Armond White even has a career, that he's a paid professional critic, proves that this is all a joke. He's contributing to the very same problem he's talking about. Film has been split up into three categories, and it's based around Awards Season, and it's based around the movies that are considered "real art" and the ones that are considered "NOT art."

January-April = The "Whatever" Movies - Romantic Comedies, Kids Movies, Some dumb low-budget action movie with Jason Statham, Jupiter Ascending, 300, etc.

May-August = The "Summer Blockbuster" Movies - Superheroes, Transformers, the $200 Million budget movies.

September-December = The "Real" Movies - the FILMS, the Oscar Bait, the Indie-Art projects. These are the movies that are critiqued and measured in fact, determining factually whether the cinematography and writing and acting are considered worthy of an award.

To me, it's such a blatantly obvious system, it's kind of insulting. It's not ALWAYS like this (Captain America in April, BvS in March), but it's generally the set-up. My problem is that most of the movies from September to December are released strategically with a clear agenda, and the critics eat this up. George Clooney was furious when The Monuments Men had to be pushed to February of the next year, because it wouldn't be considered for Award nominations. Well, WHY was the movie made then? JUST to be released in November? You made a movie JUST to release it in November? Why would you be mad that it gets released three months later? LOL, oh, maybe it's because you were interested in something beyond just making the movie itself.

I don't know. I just think the agenda is so clear now, I'm turned off by the whole thing. I'll see the movies from January to August. All this other crap is annoying to me. I look at Foxcatcher, Imitation Game, Unbroken, Big Eyes, Wild, Selma, American Sniper, and even Interstellar, and I'm like, "Ehhh, you guys are up to something, and I feel like it's not 100% about making art and making a movie that people will enjoy. I think there's golden-statue-sugar-plums dancing in your heads", and that's becoming a total turn-off to me.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Well, there are a lot of film who otherwise be forgotten released on an earlier date, especially if they compete with those high franchise films. They earn their money during these months. I like the schedule. January-August is my summer blockbuster phase and September-Now, is my indie phase. Lawd.

I can't blame Clooney. Feb films are seen as the kiss of death. Ironically, with more and more franchises, I expect those films to level out the rest of the months and films coming out in Late January-February won't be seen as duds.