The Armond White Thread

[Fiery Angel]

I never understood the line of thinking of people like Armond and right wing conspiracy theorists like him. So Deep State is smart enough to do these "fake massacres" but dumb enough to recast the same actors over and over in all of them? Of course, I shouldn't expect these assholes to have any common sense and dignity.

Of course, the Deep State was also smart and nefarious enough to conspire against Trump during the election but dumb enough to lose said election anyway.

[Big Ben]

Semi-related but if you see a name or pronoun placed in a set of three parentheses like this: (((TEST))). It's a way that far right groups signal out those of either Jewish faith or of Jewish descent. Armond White tolerates this shit and it's infuriating.

[zedz]

Semi-related but if you see a name or pronoun placed in a set of three parentheses like this: (((TEST))). It's a way that far right groups signal out those of either Jewish faith or of Jewish descent. Armond White tolerates this shit and it's infuriating.

I have lost all respect for Sunn O))).

[mfunk9786]

Armond calls A Wrinkle in Time “the second phase of Disney’s black-enslavement program this year” but the review overall is not without its charms

[domino harvey]

That pullquote has to be an all-time great for White

EDIT: Wait, this review is unexpectedly coherent and occasionally well-argued, what's happening

SECOND EDIT: But also contains a shout out to Dolly Parton's new children's album for no reason, so it's still classic Armond White

[Big Ben]

A broken clock is right twice a day domino which would account for occasional coherent thought. The phrase "black enslavement program" is a doozy.

[matrixschmatrix]

Haha, yes, very insightful Armond

There’s a real element of misandry here, with Pine’s affectless dad, Michael Peña playing a demonic male, and Zach Galifianakis as the effeminate Happy Medium wearing a man bun.

[whaleallright]

Cinema visionaries Fritz Lang, Leni Riefenstahl, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Tati, Karel Zeman, John Boorman, Wes Anderson, and Zack Snyder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6keZIUJBsQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fiery Angel]

Armond on Wes Anderson and Arnaud Desplechin (whom he calls "the French Wes Anderson")

[domino harvey]

Desplechin himself admitted to Royal Tenenbaums influencing A Christmas Tale

[Shrew]

This anti-sentimental ruse contrasts with Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole, where avian creatures had deep, mirror-like eyes, luxurious wings, and sensuous talons...

Apparently Armond is thirsty for some owls.

[Fiery Angel]

First Reformed Leads Moviegoers Astray

[Big Ben]

He talks about loneliness as "hipster nihilism" and refuses to acknowledge the growing uptick in both major depression among millennials. Really insightful there Armond. Believing that people despair because you think they want to do so.

[Mr Sausage]

Well, he called Nolan's Dark Knight films totemic examples of hipster nihilism, and those are movies that affirm values so often they make slogans of them ('It's not what I am, but what I do that defines me.', 'The hero Gotham needs, not the one it deserves', ect.). That term of Armond's has no meaning. It's a catch all for whatever Armond wants it to mean in the moment, usually as a way to vaguely criticize movies that contain certain negative emotions or moods like despair, unhappiness, hopelessness, whatever, or have a dark visual palette. He's picked it because both 'hipster' and 'nihilism' sound bad. He otherwise has no idea what either of those words mean.

[Gregory]

The hipster nihilists really are to blame for their own depression, though, when they do things like cut off Aimee Mann's toe and then get all petulant when it turns out there was never any ransom money.

[domino harvey]

I still think Tara Reid was robbed of an Oscar for Magnolia

[Gregory]

Off-topic but huh?

[DarkImbecile]

[mfunk9786]

[Fiery Angel]

The Spike Lee review no one has been waiting for.

[MongooseCmr]

It took all of two minutes to prove wrong that Do the Right Thing is Lee’s only successful film, really bodes well for the name dropping he does in every piece he writes. And I was going to say that I’d love to hear the “correct” interpretation of Birth of a Nation but I really don’t

[Brian C]

I was willing to give Armond a fair shot with this review, because I'd definitely be interested in a counter-argument. But this is just a jumbled, incoherent mess.

[Fiery Angel]

this is just a jumbled, incoherent mess.

in other words, it's an Armond White review

[Brian C]

Not always. Sometimes he has actual points to make. Whether it's a broken-clock thing or a case of him occasionally putting forth actual effort, who can say.

Point is, I feel like I approached it in good faith and came away empty.

[DeprongMori]

“misinterpreting D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation”????

Wow! I’d love to hear what Armond White’s “correct interpretation” of BoaN is. Griffith really couldn’t be clearer.