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

Apparently Armond doesn't subscribe to Netflix.

He would argue that you can't review a film you haven't seen on a theater screen, which is an ideal I subscribe to (that is not practicable for all but a few people).

I think saying that "Oscars matter" sentence OUT LOUD and getting something short of a punch is good fortune.

yeah i forgot--it's not like they were at a meeting of professional film critics.

seeing a lot of movies in the theater is really hard if not impossible b/c of terrible distributing of smaller films, and yet, asking for screeners to give these films their due means you're "in bed with hollywood"?

that's bullshit, morbs. if i was in a meeting and someone said that, you can just have a lol and debate their weird point (if she even said that, and her point was in fact weird) instead of assuming the worst in people. guy seems like a sociopath.

anyway if armond white really feels that way about theater screens i wonder why he bothers to write up essays for criterion on occasion, because only a fuckin philistine would watch the movie on a small screen.

goole: yes, bcz they are promotional devices geared at awards/promotion. That's his position.

srsly, I wouldn't frame it that way, but the serious cinema conversation from November thru Oscars was not utterly monopolized by the Trophy Carousel 30, 20, even 10 years ago. It makes me ill.

well, in the case of CCs, you are NOT going to see the films any other way unless you live near a rep venue.

JOEKS re the punching.

don't hit me, dogg!

yeah well that's a dumb position. who gives a shit what they're geared at, if they're you're only way of seeing a film, watch it. any individual film print is basically a tool to get 9.50 out of me anyway, so what

i'm a lover, not a sociopath. xp

ha, Lisa Schwarzbaum is horrible tho

Armond has gone on the record basically saying you can not be a cinephile (in America, at any rate) unless you live in New York.

― sir-mounter (Eric H.), Thursday, August 13, 2009 12:18 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

did any of u guys see that documentary about cinephiles in new york - Cinemania, i think? anyway AW reminds me of the crazy broad from that movie

always wanted to see that movie!
maybe i'll go hunt for it

acc to James Redd, that "crazy broad" just died.

Was it Orly Taitz?

We should a RIP thread.

everyone in it was pretty depressing but she was the least grounded, most insane seeming one... that poor-ass monster.

Is it worth watching? Is she the really old with the glasses?

old lady

no, she wasn't that old iirc, just kinda middle aged and wiry catlady-ish... when they show her apartment though it's terrifying. she had a thing about keeping all her ticket stubs, and there's a story about when she physically attacked an usher who dared to tear her stub in half

Jesus that's bonkers.

Roberta Hill, a former mail carrier in her early 60's, lives in an apartment crammed with promotional junk and bric-a-brac, including the ticket stubs for every movie she attends. (She shuns television.) Hot tempered and imperious, she was banned from the Museum of Modern Art after attacking an usher who unwittingly ripped her stub in half.

these people sound sad and depressing.

really does kinda sound like AW tho

Armond would have just called the usher a cunt and then written a blog post bad-mouthing ushers in general for wrecking the currents of museum culture though.

she reminded me a lot of my mom... hit a lil 2 close 2 home imo

yeah i saw her at a lot of screenings. as i related on the film snob thread i vividly remember her loudly kvetching about the air conditioning at anthology before a screening

Ebert: Not In Defense of Armond White

that's funny but im not sure Ebert is really the paragon of good taste (though i often enjoy his reviews).

That picture:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/1897/armondwhiteisntinsane.jpg

id say the "good movies" column is much more damning than the "bad movies" column. Rise of the Silver Surfer? ugh.

That good list is WAY more selective than is accurate.

btw go see You, the Living

Ebert asks some good questions in there.

you the living is amazing. i dont think it's even available on dvd in the states (or canada for that matter). songs from the second floor is out of print too. this is an injustice imo

xpost Sorry, not on local radar. Apparently even the Walker feels it more important to run a retrospective of the Coen brothers.

I suppose I could check for torrentz, et al ...

you should see songs first if poss

id say the "good movies" column is much more damning than the "bad movies" column. Rise of the Silver Surfer? ugh.

it's true that armond's one reliable use is that if you happen to hate some movie lots of other people love, his predictable trashing of it can give a certain amount of satisfaction. but it always feels like a cheap thrill.

It will be interesting to see which of his '00s hobby horses make it onto his 2012 S&S list a la A.I. in '02.

Ebert asks some good questions in there.

yeah, i love the big about "pre-fans" who are so totally in the tank for a movie they haven't even seen yet. those people always weird me out.

big=bit

fer sher.

i havent read any fanboy reaction but excoriating AW for bringing up apartheid in the D9 review is headinhands.jpg

u know if i was trying to think of "people who i would be more likely to disagree with than armond white" the aint it cool news brigade would be pretty high up on that list

Too true.

You the Living is just getting theatrical engagements in the US; I saw it Yuesday at Film Forum on the last day of a 2-week run.

When mine was the first pan of "Humpday" to go up on RT, some "user" emailed me "Thanks for ruining the perfect score."

Yuesday, how fitting. ;)

should have emailed back "dealwithitdog.gif"

are there really people who care about a perfect score on rotten tomatoes. that is very bizarre!

imo having the lowest-rated review on something like metacritic or rotten tomatoes is a good thing more often than not -- lotta times i actively seek out the lowest scores just to see what they have to say

^^ yeah reading the dissenting voices can be valuable on those aggregation sites and with user reviews too

are there really people who care about a perfect score on rotten tomatoes. that is very bizarre!

I was a half-star away from getting clubbed by Trekkies over that ST movie. They threw up hundreds of posts about AW's pan.