Slate Movie Club annual roundtable

PAHAHA

Ah, fuck it. I'm not even in the right state of mind to be getting into this argument. He's still an essential read, et al, but how long will he continue to run on the same old fumes? And don't even get me started on his copycats.

I mean this very literally. He would accuse everyone here of being the cultural magpies perverting the purity of cinema that he and only he seems to hold the key to unlocking. He hates you (and yes I'm talking to you). Rosenbaum (sort-of-)famously suggested that film culture would be improved if there were no film critics (though he meant "reviewers," essentially). Armond seems to believe this.

God I hate getting mad at the fucker, because to get riled by him is to play right into his talons.

Don't get me wrong, AW can be ridiculously dismissive -- The Sweet Hereafter was "a masterpiece for idiots" -- but I think he mostly holds people who love what he considers to be flattering, self-regarding movies in contempt. He's the only critic I've read so far who's pointed out that "Tarnation" is a vainglorious exploitation film, and that most of the "Before Sunset" dialogue is Bourgeois Nitwit ("as if Kevin Smith had read a book," one of the better jokes of the year).

otoh, he's unconvincing when he claims Todd Haynes and Guy Maddin hate old movies.

Hardly.

he mostly holds people who love what he considers to be flattering, self-regarding movies in contempt

I presume this is because he is offended by movies that ask him to regard something other than himself for a couple hours.

OK, I don't really hate on Armond all that hard. (In fact, he's the only critic of all those in this year's Movie Club I think is worth reading on a regular basis.) But, really, sometimes the lines must be drawn.

i like Armond most of the time but this is certainly true. there is something very adolescent about the implicit sense in his criticism that everyone around him is a drone blinded by fashion and "smug" attitudes about film. this is what makes his criticism interesting and absolutely obnoxious as hell. it just depends on the film almost. i love his defenses of Spielberg because in that case I believe that everyone is being a drone! it's hard for him to believe, on the other hand, that someone can have sincere reasons for liking a film he didn't.