another maniacal Armond White review, this time "Fahrenheit 9/11"

"cena is a now-overrated piece of trash!"

AW's politics are too incoherent to be labeled conservative.

Moore is a hypocritical Bam-votin' liberal asshole, tho.

Meanwhile: http://cityarts.info/2013/01/09/better-than-list-2012/

In the "nobody does it better" category this year:

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Taken 2 > Zero Dark Thirty
Les Miserables > Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Dark Horse > The Turin Horse
A Thousand Words > Argo

He's so vile.

Tom Hopper and cast preserved the power of pop opera, while Nuri Bilge Ceylan cynically, tediously observed man’s inhumanity to audiences.

Just lazy.

conservative politics are too incoherent to be labeled 'conservative'! anyway aw's animating principle is resentment, so hes certainly coming from the same place as most us convervatives

But White and a friend(!) shouted

The Deep Blue Sea > The Loneliest Planet

Terence Davies’ gay sensitivity to sex roles (and memorable performances by Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale) bested Julia Loktev’s juvenile view of female infidelity and male weakness.

^^ most otm thing he's written this year

That's not difficult.

'conservative politics' erupt over a documentary in large part about a bond trader who never gave a shit about activism until he got AIDS

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Taken 2 > Zero Dark Thirty

tbf i couldn't finish zdt and barely finished spirit of vengeance

anyway good job having a MM-AW hateoff at the dinner, QT-Spike would've had everyone nodding off in their soup.

Actually, this:

Movies weren’t just entertainment but were used to justify escapist(possibly even anti-social) points of view.

is (inadvertently) the most OTM thing he's written this year.

it amazes me that he only allows himself to outright do ">" binaries once a year

lmao at that one

xp

every review he writes has one of those imo

wtf kind of fevered brian created a Les Miz-Anatolia binary?

*brain too

every review he writes has one of those imo

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, January 9, 2013 11:21 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's what i mean, it's all he ever does but the rest of the year the > sign is only implied

if u told me there's an operatic autopsy in Les Miz i'd believe it

lol @ declaring two movies specifically better than ZDT, lol @ hating on Amour for "celebrating the end of life" because apparently that is pessimistic and apparently pessimism is automatic grounds for dismissal

i think he means celebrating in the sense of enjoying the hell out of making the audience suffer

like armond doesn't do that too?

found a Morrissey review in Spin from the early nineties in which White's misanthropy and Moz's un-charm were a volatile combination.

Patty Smyth > Morrissey

somedude, armond doesn't make films (yet)

http://cityarts.info/2013/02/01/number-one-with-a-bullet/

[Bullet to the Head] really does feel like the best American movie for past couple of years

Also, LOL.

http://elusivelucidity.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-bulleit-so-rare.html

I am also curious if anyone can establish for us that Gregory Solman is not, in fact, a long-standing pen name & alter ego for Armond White. Perhaps the two are critic-friends who've developed similar tastes over time - that's certainly a possibility. But given that they share a personal canon of great cinema, as well as similar styles of argumentation & critical reference, and they write for a lot of the same venues, and that White is known & seen around public screenings but Solman is seemingly even less photographed than Manohla Dargis, and is referred to almost exclusively by White (and rarely by other critics) ... well, you can see how suspicions arise in an idle mind. Maybe a bit like the possibility of Ray Carney writing some of his own fan mail - there are too many flattering imitations, too many phrases like the ones we see Solman put forth in this interview: "You convinced me!" or "As I know you know..."

AW: This movie has the best dialogue in years.

AW: I enjoyed Bullet for its visual richness and moral detail. We’ve forgotten that movies could accomplish this.

GS: I’m glad that Walter hasn’t.

reminds me of that exchange in an Ashbery poem:

I said it but I can hide it. But I choose not to.
Thank you. You are a very pleasant person.
Thank you. You are too.

Armond is introducing Lady Sings the Blues at BAM next Monday night.

gregory solman recently curated a clint eastwood festival here in l.a.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/120831-eastwood-hmed-8a.photoblog600.jpg

Imagine how precise and authentic Hill would have made Killing Them Softly or There Will Be Blood.–films that are inconceivable without Last Man Standing or The Long Riders.

???

Hill is the father of modern adepts Neveldine-Taylor and John Moore and Paul W.S. Anderson. They all know how to make movies be kinetic and moral. The torture of Christian Slater scene feels Godardian, as if it were an instantaneous critique of very confused Zero Dark Thirty as well as the puerile Reservoir Dogs.

the solman/white piece (and there's plenty online to suggest solman isn't an alias) http://cityarts.info/2013/02/01/number-one-with-a-bullet/

In formal terms Nolan, Tarantino, Soderbergh, Dominik, even Kathryn Bigelow are pikers compared to Walter Hill. Put the Scott Brothers (the late Tony, the aesthetically dead Ridley in this category, too).

That shit is cold blooded even with the typo

the man has deep deep issues

Let's keep a running tally of how many movies he compares unfavorably to Bullet in the Head this year. I say we'll hit 30 by Labor Day.

http://cityarts.info/2013/02/06/at-cinemas-crossroads/

Few things hurt more than seeing Armond White championing a director I also like.

i could swear he used to be relatively lucid and refreshing--maybe 10-12 years ago--but im afraid to go back and check.

no one tell Armond that Walter Hill is actually quite highly rated

Gus V'an Sant's Pooperganda. Read now. cityarts.info/2013/02/06/fri…
6:58pm - 6 Feb 13

Read some of his new reviews for the first time in a while today. When did he fall out of love with Spielberg?

when other people fell back in love with him probably

his tempered reaction to Lincoln can likely be laid at Kushner's feet.

And Obama's (worshipers).

i kind of like the idea of armond white -- this grumpy contrarian, perpetually convinced of his righteousness whose aesthetic sensibility just couldn't be more out of touch with mainstream critics -- but he is just such a godawful writer that i can't bring myself to enjoy his reviews.

with the rise of "vulgar auterism" he's going to have to look harder to be contrarian.