Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684447 times)

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #680 on: March 21, 2017, 11:22:03 AM »
http://www.filmspotting.net/forum/index.php?topic=14226.msg865772#msg865772

I reviewed it a couple of weeks ago and I thought there's been one more.

Corndog

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #681 on: March 21, 2017, 11:38:20 AM »
I saw it over the weekend, but probably won't be writing a review. I enjoyed it quite a bit actually.
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Jeff Schroeck

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #682 on: March 21, 2017, 11:43:48 AM »
Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2014

better than that is watching her become a better and more shrewd salesperson the more she is forced to confront her coworkers.

I've also never been more glad to only have time to watch movies in half hour chunks because I could only handle about five uncomfortable interactions at a time!

4.5/5
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 05:51:12 PM by Jeff Schroeck »

jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #683 on: March 21, 2017, 11:54:47 AM »
Get Out (2017)

The most important thing that needs to be said about this film is that Armond White is an incredible dick. I was all set to make a joke about how of course the one critic to pan Get Out is named White and then I found out that he's an African-American man. That doesn't make his critical opinion of the film somehow more biting. It is not random that his review of Get Out appeared in the National Review, a conservative magazine, because his response to this is the role that people like Clarence Thomas, Allen West or Ben Carson have long played. He finds his niche giving comfort to the comfortable on issues of race. Indeed, in his conception, the villain here is Jordan Peele for daring to make white folk uncomfortable with accusations of racial bias.

Long before the film take a turn for the outright horror, it marinates us in the uneasy. It is a cold war of microaggressions that we fear, or fear on behalf of the protagonist, could erupt into a hot war at any moment. Because that is (we take, being white I cannot speak of experience) what it is like to be Black. It is a narrow line between that extra bit of scrutiny a professed woke white person might nevertheless offer and George Zimmerman feeling the need to play cop. Armond White critiques the film as shallow, but that's because he doesn't want to accept its depths and the way it not only contextualizes black paranoia but takes a curious twist on cultural appropriation. Race in America is a great point of tension, and Peele adapts it into the genre that is all about tension.

It feels patronizing to praise this as a great debut film, it is essentially flawless, and likely will remain one of best, if not the best, films of the year.

Just caught up with this over the weekend. SEX SLAVE is going to be one of the best moments in any film all year

You never heard of Armond White before? If you google "slashfilmcast armond white" you can find quite a few episodes where he made a guest appearance with them. Each of them is quite painful from what I recall. He seems to have a habit of tearing apart any thought provoking or art film and then offers up a list of other films that are so much better which usually seemed like huge commercial hits like Transformers.  At least from what I recall.

His fall from grace was when he reportedly heckled 12 Years a Slave during an awards dinner.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/01/new-york-film-critics-circle-expels-armond-white-after-12-years-slave-outburst/356963/

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Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #684 on: March 21, 2017, 12:54:03 PM »
Armond White's annual Better-Than list usually is a bit of amusing reading!
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #685 on: March 21, 2017, 01:25:05 PM »
You never heard of Armond White before?

I had heard of him and even heard him on /filmscast before. So I knew he was noted as a contrarian reviewer. What I didn't know was that he was black or that he wrote for the National Review (and OUT of all places). So that added context was meaningful in this instance.

jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #686 on: March 21, 2017, 01:37:14 PM »
You never heard of Armond White before?

 he wrote for the National Review (and OUT of all places).

well, he has range.
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StudentOFilm

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #687 on: March 21, 2017, 02:42:14 PM »
I wasn't aware White didn't like "Get Out".

The man is just a contrarian. He is completely random in what he chooses to politicize and although I could understand appreciating that there are very few openly gay African American film critics (an argument his fans bring up, but yes, he certainly he does bring an interesting take), Ebert summed him up best when he called him a "troll". I could understand wanting to think against the grain, but I don't think his arguments hold onto their logic especially when you can find another review he wrote where he praises movies for the same reasons he dislikes others.
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #688 on: March 21, 2017, 03:35:01 PM »
I just ignore White's antics at this point. It's clear he has little of value to say as an actual critic.

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #689 on: March 21, 2017, 05:15:05 PM »
You never heard of Armond White before?

I had heard of him and even heard him on /filmscast before. So I knew he was noted as a contrarian reviewer. What I didn't know was that he was black or that he wrote for the National Review (and OUT of all places). So that added context was meaningful in this instance.
Are you aware he's also gay? Also religious? That there's a non-zero chance he voted for Trump?

The only context for White is that he's a contrarian not only because his tastes don't align with any form of mainstream, but because he specifically cultivates his tastes to be opposed to anything any person could consistently believe.