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[kmax]

Armond White's bad list is pretty great.

Quality movies all around.

 

[rbenchley]

I love reading Armond White. He's completely full of shit a good deal of the time, but he's also capable of some genuinely interesting movie criticism and he's never boring.

 

[stufte]

Armond White eh? Yah this is more of a "movies you should definitely watch" list.

 

[harSon]

Just saw that list. Why does this guy hate good movies?

To be fair, it's pretty selective. He reviewed plenty of great movies favorably, and plenty of bad ones negatively, but those are omitted for obvious reasons. There's still an obvious trend though.

 

[lednerg]

Shockingly, the black, gay Republican critic has bizarre taste in films.

 

[kswiston]

To be fair, it's pretty selective. He reviewed plenty of great movies favorably, and plenty of bad ones negatively, but those are omitted for obvious reasons. There's still an obvious trend though.

The trend is that he trolls when a movie has any sort of hype or notoriety. If it is a small forgotten art film or foreign film, he reviews it honestly.

 

[akira28]

All this time I thought he was a complete madman. And now I see he's only mostly mad.

 

[DJMicLuv]

Armond White is a professional troll.

That this thread exists empowers him further.

So, he wins because we all think he's a stupid fucking cunt?
Congrats, Armond, you fooled us all!

 

[Snake]

"Armond White in the National Review"
A trolling masterstroke so pronounced, you don't even need to read the contents.

 

[inm8num2]

Armond White is basically the personification of this:

Figured he wouldn't last too long outside of the NYFCC without needing to stir the pot a bit and get some attention.

 

[Hawkian]

Getting mad at Armond White is like getting mad at Sacha Baron Cohen in-character.

This must actually be it, right? He gets a few of the movies, you know... wrong

 

[DeadTrees]

political and class biases have been exhibited in films that became more and more partisan

Does National Review not employ editors or copy editors or interns or even homeless crack-addicted English-major dropouts? Eh, I'm sure Armond will provide a graceful and well-argued rebuttal to all that partisan rhetor--

corrupt dishonest liberal agenda embrace anarchy distorted the history nihilism self-hatred political vengeance attacked maturity technocrat racial condescension infantilized celebration of chaos and irresponsibility game-show greed Ugly Americans patriotic sadism ahistorical disparaged American foreign policy Brangelina Hipster Hollywood pseudo-epic weirdly misogynist limousine-liberal Obama-era political chicanery

Well, at least he has a future in speechwriting.

 

[JB1981]

Oh, Armond White is a conservative nut? Never knew that.

 

[ZealousD]

Shockingly, the black, gay Republican critic has bizarre taste in films.

I don't understand the environment where a person is black AND gay, yet becomes a Republican.

Like, how was the person raised? What lead to that?

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I don't understand the environment where a person is black AND gay, yet becomes a Republican.

Like, how was the person raised? What lead to that?

He's a professional contrarian. His entire public persona revolves around defying convention to the point of absurdity. He must be a pain in the ass to go to restaurants with.

 

[B-Dubs]

That reads more like a list of movies to watch. Like every movie on that list is good.

 

[Rest]

The preamble to the list made it sound like he might actually have thought about what he was going to post, but the list its self and the comments he made to justify the items on the list just sound like the ravings of a madman.

 

[ElFly]

I love the Dark Knight but the whole cell phone spying thing always made me uncomfortable -besides being really silly-.

Winter Soldier treats a similar point from another angle much better, but it is just not as good as tdk.

Oh well.

 

[Tertullian]

Nobody trolls like Armond trolls.

 

[BajiBoxer]

Armond White's bad list is pretty great.

Quality movies all around.

I agree. Even reminded me of a few interesting looking films I'd forgotten to watch. Thanks Armond!

 

[MacNille]

And Highlander 2 is not on the list.....

 

[xbhaskarx]

This guy should literally not be allowed to have an opinion.

.

 

[THRILLH0]

I don't want to discuss this colossal asshole and you shouldn't be bringing attention to him.

Sorry but fuck this sort of thinking.

I love the fact that someone who thinks about movies like Armond White exists.

This particular "article" is not the best example but more often than not he's happy to go to great lengths to both articulate and justify his positions.

I rarely agree with him but I love reading his stuff.

 

[cdyhybrid]

Discuss.

Skip Bayless of movie reviews.

 

[Delta Assault]

Somebody needs to make an Armond White review generator. We've already got The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator and SCIgen... this is obviously the next step. Just use an RNG and a few words: "nihilism" "social mores" "anarchy" "malignant" "culture" "egotism" "condescension" "chicanery" "distorted" "cynicism"

 

[stufte]

Somebody needs to make an Armond White review generator. We've already got The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator and SCIgen... this is obviously the next step. Just use an RNG and a few words: "nihilism" "social mores" "anarchy" "malignant" "culture" "egotism" "condescension" "chicanery" "distorted" "cynicism"

you forgot his favorite word: Banal.

or banality.

his use of it is quite banal, in fact.

 

[biggersmaller]

Troll. A brilliant one at that. He pokes the bear, then he gets paid. Pity those that believe he's sincere and somehow agree with what he says.

 

[curlyfriski]

A lot of those movies do suck. Good Night and Good Luck was awards bait trash.
And at least he's somewhat interesting. Most movie critics are dull recyclers of received wisdom.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Wow he really hates progressives

 

[massoluk]

Come on man, The Dark Knight was such as easy target, but it's certainly not for "overturn social mores, and embrace anarchy." You could have said it's making excuse for Patriot Act and Undue Process.

 

[Jigorath]

This guy sure loves the sound of his own voice.

 

[Yamauchi]

What the hell did I just read?

 

[DrSlek]

10) The Social Network (2010) — David Fincher’s new Horatio Alger tale glorified technocrat Mark Zuckerberg with chic, digital-era arrogance.

It glorified him?
I watch that movie and think he's egotistical and a colossal arsehole.

 

[IrishNinja]

man if i knew Wall-E embraced nihilism, i might've watched that one

 

[Jigorath]

It glorified him?
I watch that movie and think he's egotistical and a colossal arsehole.

Right? The movie put him in a very negative light and made Eduardo look like the hero. Even though real life facts make Zuckerberg far more sympathetic. There were people closing their facebook accounts because of this movie.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

If Wall-E destroyed art and social unity then art and social unity deserved to be destroyed.

 

[AstroLad]

Rather than Ali G, I would compare him more to Westboro. The only correct move is literally to ignore it. Don't comment that you're ignoring it, or why you're ignoring it, and definitely don't get upset about it if you're actually trying to do anything counter to what he's seeking.

 

[Delta Assault]

It glorified him?
I watch that movie and think he's egotistical and a colossal arsehole.

He was counting on the fact that the "Horatio Alger" reference would be obscure enough to confuse and discourage most people from reading past it to the rest of his bullshit reasoning.

 

[JumpJeff84]

If I remember correctly from some podcast I listened to with Armond White as a guest, he thinks the Transformers movies are works of art.

I really wanna hear this!

 

[Kusagari]

Armond's brilliance is the subtle buttons he pushes in his critiques to really piss people off.

My favorite thing he ever did was constantly misspell Whedon as "Wheedon" his entire Avengers review.

 

[Delta Assault]

I really wanna hear this!

His review for Revenge of the Fallen.

 

[stufte]

Armond's brilliance is the subtle buttons he pushes in his critiques to really piss people off.

My favorite thing he ever did was constantly misspell Whedon as "Wheedon" his entire Avengers review.

Which is why he shouldn't be allowed within 1000 yards of any respectable news or entertainment outlet.

 

[bomma_man]

Shockingly, the black, gay Republican critic has bizarre taste in films.

greatest performance artist of our time

 

[Discotheque]

The 12 Years A Slave description must be the most idiotic one.

Apparently he loudly booed the director at some event and got himself kicked out lol

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

This guy will have to forgive me if the scarcely concealed subtext of what he's written here is not exactly representative of a mind particularly concerned with abandoning bias for the sake of artistic integrity.

man if i knew Wall-E embraced nihilism, i might've watched that one

It didn't. It's a movie designed to sell toys with a plot about how terrible senseless consumerism is.

 

[Ahasverus]

I don't know why but I expected The Dark Knight to score. And I was right. Why was that?

 

[Dany]

Apparently he loudly booed the director at some event and got himself kicked out lol

Wasn't it at Cannes?

 

[Talon]

Oh my God.

Armand White would fucking write for the National Review.

This is amazing.

 

[Fari]

Apparently he loudly booed the director at some event and got himself kicked out lol

He also called him "an embarrassing doorman and garbageman."

Still partially convinced he's some sort of performance artist.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

'Da fuck?

My precise reaction.