nah
― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 17:55 (three years ago) link
maybe we need a new thread: New Yorker magazine alert thread: post-Zoom Jackin' incident edition
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 17:58 (three years ago) link
(this is petty but at least not toobin-related...) had a hard time with this sentence in anthony lane's 2020 roundup article: "covid-19, an affliction that, like a notable Burgundy, will forever bear the date of its vintage."
ah yes, thank you for finding a way to invoke the mental image of you decanting a fine wine while referencing this tragedy
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 31 December 2020 17:16 (three years ago) link
"September 11, like one's first visit to a favorite Montparnasse brasserie, was a morning that will always be remembered"
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 31 December 2020 17:20 (three years ago) link
Does Anthony Lane have photos of David Remnick’s Toobin or something because he’s the absolute worst
― is right unfortunately (silby), Thursday, 31 December 2020 18:21 (three years ago) link
Isn't Lane married to arch-fuckwit-COVID-denier Allison Pearson?
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Saturday, 2 January 2021 01:41 (three years ago) link
someday this thread will be in SNA and it will be about a New Yorker article rather than Toobin's dick
The Lawrence Wright piece in the current issue about the critical first months of US COVID response is more interesting than Toobin's dick, and substantially longer
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 2 January 2021 19:30 (three years ago) link
Whoa I was not even aware of Allison Pearson, much less her connection to Lane. She seems pretty terrible.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 2 January 2021 20:00 (three years ago) link
It's also depressing to realize Lane has now been a New Yorker critic for five years longer than Kael was. They need to shake that up.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 2 January 2021 20:03 (three years ago) link
ideally shaken upside-down from the Brooklyn Bridge
― is right unfortunately (silby), Saturday, 2 January 2021 20:12 (three years ago) link
I'm so old I remember when everybody liked Anthony Lane. (Including me! I remember him being authentically funny! Was I wrong? If I went back and read those columns now would I blanch?)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 2 January 2021 21:01 (three years ago) link
when was that, exactly
― is right unfortunately (silby), Saturday, 2 January 2021 21:05 (three years ago) link
At some point I liked Lane enough to buy his book *twice*, once in hardback and once in paperback when I moved to another country.
Now I just skip him entirely - the jokes are tired and everything is a variation on "i'd rather be watching preston sturges"
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 2 January 2021 21:14 (three years ago) link
yeah, I used to like Lane and bought his book
that would require him to be in New York, rather than his actual home of Cambridge, England
here is a collection of Pearson, btw:
Good question @allisonpearson! What did they do in China and Wuhan that has allowed them to get back to normal? pic.twitter.com/oLOtKg1suG— Sam Bowman (@s8mb) January 1, 2021
― shivers me timber (sic), Saturday, 2 January 2021 21:18 (three years ago) link
Oh right he’s English that explains his lechery and his mawkish turns of phrase
― is right unfortunately (silby), Saturday, 2 January 2021 21:21 (three years ago) link
I used to like Lane too, I enjoyed his one-liners. He's a breezy writer. But I feel that shtick wore thin a long time ago, and there's not much beneath it. I've never thought he had very interesting ideas about film as a medium — or really, any particular ideas at all. You can like or dislike Brody, but at least he seems like a serious film guy to me, he has an aesthetic orientation steeped in knowledge of cinema. Lane has always seemed like a dilettante.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 2 January 2021 21:22 (three years ago) link
can't be worse than denby
― mookieproof, Saturday, 2 January 2021 21:24 (three years ago) link
I remember really liking a piece where he picked some random year from the early 20th century and read every NYT #1 bestseller from that year and reviewed them all. Probably sometime in the 1990s.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 3 January 2021 02:58 (three years ago) link
Pearson appears to be having a giant covid-denialism meltdown today because she doesn't want to have to spend any time with their kids?
― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, 4 January 2021 12:30 (three years ago) link
also having a giant freakout about the pervasive curse of media wokeness, including this assertion about a current TV programme that is part-funded by the BBC and which she is watching on the BBC
#Spiral, arguably one of the best TV cop dramas ever made, could not have come out of the current BBC. It is too truth-telling about tensions in French society, too unvarnished, too dirty, too damn incorrect. That’s what makes it so remarkable.— Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) January 3, 2021
― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, 4 January 2021 12:34 (three years ago) link
Allison Pearson should accept this prompt deletion & public apology as enough to undo any damage to her reputation. Going further is bullying. https://t.co/UoaEolnp2I— Simon Cox (@SimonFRCox) January 4, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 January 2021 13:33 (three years ago) link
Quite a bit going on:
People today are accusing Allison Pearson of not caring about mental health. I think it is worth pointing out this column for the Daily Mail in April 2010, in which she wrote about her own depression: https://t.co/klwv8OInd8— Robert Hanks (@RobertHanks) January 4, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 January 2021 13:46 (three years ago) link
Back in the late 90s she was some mild arts commentator. Her journey into the utter monstrosity of today is something else, a lot to map out.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 January 2021 13:49 (three years ago) link
Denby was the worst. Didn't he write a book about porn addiction? Lane is fine with me, I think he's a good, witty writer, even if he doesn't always have anything special to say. Brody ... he reminds me of Rosenbaum or other quirky cineaste contrarians a lot, and because of that I've warned friends to tread carefully when they read a Brody rave.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 14:05 (three years ago) link
yeah brody is one of those critics who doesnt really have value as a consumer guide, but is still a good read bc it can be fun and useful to follow along with the mental gymnastics he uses to get to his wacky opinions. as a bunch have pointed out before, even though hes nuts he seems to come by his bizarre opinions honestly. imo lane is fine but boring, i have less & less interest in his tasteful cocktail party wit thing. brody seems like a legit movie-obsessed weirdo which is way more fun for me.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:07 (three years ago) link
Excellent post, OEO.
― Dog Heavy Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:21 (three years ago) link
one of those critics who doesnt really have value as a consumer guide, but is still a good read bc it can be fun and useful to follow along with the mental gymnastics he uses to get to his wacky opinions
This just kind of makes me want to waltz sideways into an alternate universe where Armond White is a beloved New Yorker movie critic for decades
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:36 (three years ago) link
I wish the magazine would find room for Brody in print, apart from capsule reviews. It's a shame that all of his long reviews are online-only.
― jaymc, Monday, 4 January 2021 15:40 (three years ago) link
1 100 percent agree that Lane is better than Denby. Just kind of a low bar. They've done a good job bringing in younger, diverse writers in other arts/culture realms, it would be great to expand that to film.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 4 January 2021 16:07 (three years ago) link
― jaymc, Monday, January 4, 2021 10:40 AM (one hour ago)
yeah it's maddening, he's really their only full-time film critic with anything interesting to say
― k3vin k., Monday, 4 January 2021 16:43 (three years ago) link
― Guayaquil (eephus!),
It's better than Vidal's, after whom he modeled it.
I also dug his essays on Matthew Arnold, Gide, Bunuel.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 January 2021 16:45 (three years ago) link
I had no problem with Denby when he wrote for New York. I still on occasion look for reviews on '80s and '90s stuff of his on Google Books.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 January 2021 16:46 (three years ago) link
It's kind of interesting, there are all sorts of well-known and respected young-ish (let's say, liberally, under 50) music writers, but to my knowledge no equivalent for film writing. For some reason I thought Manohla Dargis was young, but she's almost 60 (same as Lane). AO Scott is in his mid-50s. Brody, fwiw, is 72.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 17:08 (three years ago) link
Get @filmcrithulk the New Yorker gig
― is right unfortunately (silby), Monday, 4 January 2021 17:29 (three years ago) link
I love Brody. He’s a reasonably good guide for me, tho has a higher tolerance for twee aesthetics than I do
― ILX’s bad boy (D-40), Monday, 4 January 2021 17:39 (three years ago) link
Same. Our sensibilities align even when we disagree.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 January 2021 17:47 (three years ago) link
A few youngish film writers working for top publications:
K. Austin Collins (Rolling Stone), Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair), Alissa Wilkinson (Vox), Angelica Jade Bastién (Vulture), Alison Willmore (BuzzFeed), Justin Chang (L.A. Times)
― jaymc, Monday, 4 January 2021 17:48 (three years ago) link
Also, Hunter Harris isn't a film critic, but she's a film writer with 100K Twitter followers and a Substack.
― jaymc, Monday, 4 January 2021 17:50 (three years ago) link
david sims at the atlantic
― na (NA), Monday, 4 January 2021 18:11 (three years ago) link
OEO OTM wrt Brody; i find him generally insufferable and tend to find his aesthetics incompatible with mine but at least he's working with an internal logic that mostly stands up even when i completely disagree with it.
i've been getting into old issues of cineaste lately
― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Monday, 4 January 2021 18:14 (three years ago) link
I don't know how old Vern is, but he's the only film critic whose taste I trust implicitly.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 4 January 2021 18:53 (three years ago) link
dril has a good letterboxd account
― k3vin k., Monday, 4 January 2021 18:57 (three years ago) link
Vern has to have been born between 1971 and 1976.
― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:02 (three years ago) link
reïmpeached
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 13 January 2021 21:59 (three years ago) link
Löl
― alpaca lips now (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 13 January 2021 22:34 (three years ago) link
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/18/trolling-the-great-outdoors
― Joe Biden Stan Account (milo z), Sunday, 24 January 2021 16:51 (three years ago) link
hope the death threats get acted upon
― The return of our beloved potatoes (the table is the table), Sunday, 24 January 2021 17:07 (three years ago) link
i made it 4 or 5 grafs before tiring of the prospect that i would ever receive evidence pertaining as to why i should give a shit
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 24 January 2021 17:51 (three years ago) link
"Hey, remember Tucker Max? Well, now he's in the wilderness clothing business!"
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 24 January 2021 17:54 (three years ago) link
i feel like i need to rinse my eyes with bleach after reading about that dude
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Sunday, 24 January 2021 17:55 (three years ago) link