Armond White
Encyclopedia
Armond White is a New York
-based film and music critic known for his provocative and idiosyncratic film criticism, which some have characterized as contrarian
. He is currently the editor of City Arts, for which he also writes articles and reviews. He was previously the lead film critic for the alternative weekly
New York Press
(1997–2011) and the arts editor and critic for The City Sun
(1984–1996). Other publications that have carried his work include Film Comment
, The Nation
, The New York Times
, Slate
, and First Things
.
as the youngest of seven children. His family was the first African-American family to move to a primarily Jewish neighborhood, where he grew up. Raised Baptist
, he later became Pentecostal, and identifies himself as "a believer."
His interest in journalism and film criticism began as a student at Detroit’s Central High School
, when he first read film critic Pauline Kael
's book, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
whom he cites for "her willingness to go against the hype," along with Andrew Sarris
, for his "sophisticated love of cinema," as being a major inspiration on his choice of professional career. White is a recipient of a Master of Fine Arts
degree from Columbia University
’s School of the Arts
.
He is a member of New York Film Critics Circle
, National Society of Film Critics
and New York Film Critics Online
. He was the three time chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle (1994, 2009 and 2010), and has also served as a member of the jury at the Sundance Film Festival
, Tribeca Film Festival
and Mill Valley Film Festival
and was a member of several National Endowment for the Arts
panels. He has taught classes on film at Columbia University
and Long Island University
.
In 1992 White won the 25th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor
Award for music criticism for "The Gloved One Is Not a Chump," his essay on Michael Jackson
's "Black or White" video.
White claims to watch "five to 10 movies a week" and "as many as 400 films a year".
White, who has asserted in an interview that "most films are dismissable," has been described as the "most contrarian" of film critics for allegedly "position[ing] himself in diametric opposition to virtually every film critic on earth". White has dismissed these allegations, stating that he has never "said anything about a movie out of meanness or indifference" and that he always contrasts movies he evaluates negatively with ones he considers superior, as in his annual "Better-Than Lists". Rotten Tomatoes
, a website that aggregates film reviews, indicates that he agrees with the consensus of other professional critics 52% of the time. He has been compared to such critics as Pauline Kael
, Dorothy Parker
, Kenneth Tynan
and Nathan Cohen
for his "intransigent refusal to think what people expect him to think."
White is known for his use of the term "hipster nihilism
" as a description of what he sees as a prevalent, and destructive, attitude toward film and the world, as well as his notion of "kinetic art" which he identifies in many action films. He coined the label "the American Eccentrics" to describe a group of "millennial" filmmakers including Wes Anderson
, Spike Jonze
, David O. Russell
, Alexander Payne
, Paul Thomas Anderson
, and Sofia Coppola
whose works "offer an unabashed solipsism, whimsy, and undisguised film savvy."
White is known for his advocacy for the works of directors Steven Spielberg
and Brian De Palma
and for the music and films of Michael Jackson
. In a 2002 Sight & Sound
poll he ranked Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence as the greatest film of all time.
for particular condemnation, telling an interviewer that "I do think it is fair to say that Roger Ebert destroyed film criticism" and accusing him of "talking about movies as disconnected from social and moral issues, simply as entertainment". He has called Village Voice critic J. Hoberman
"pathetic," "despotic," "traitorous," and "racist," describing him as "the scoundrel-czar of contemporary film criticism" whose malign "influence (as NYU instructor to the Times’ Manohla Dargis
and innumerable Internet clones) stretches from coast to coast, institution to institution"; he also categorically described Hoberman's associates in the film community as "brownshirts," "fascists," and "backward children." Other film writers he has singled out for criticism include A. O. Scott
, David Thomson
, David Denby
, Gary Indiana
, David Bordwell
, Georgia Brown, Karina Longworth
and Lisa Schwarzbaum
, who along with J. Hoberman he has accused of racism. Of such accusations, White has written that
White has been an outspoken opponent of online film criticism, which he associates with "amateurism, gossip [and] cliques" rather than the "education, expertise [and] experience" he attributes to professional film criticism. He has cited film review aggregators in general and Rotten Tomatoes
in particular as examples of how "the Internet takes revenge on individual expression" by "dumping reviewers onto one website and assigning spurious percentage-enthusiasm points to the discrete reviews" and "offer[s] consensus as a substitute for assessment." He has also stated his opinion that "there should be no film critics younger than 30" since they would lack the necessary scholarship and life experience.
In interviews he has repeatedly demurred when asked to identify critics other than himself whose work he values. However, in other settings he has praised the writing of Molly Haskell
and GayToday.com critic John Demetry. Among film critics of previous generations, in addition to Kael and Sarris, White has credited James Agee
and former New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
.
Because of his consistently negative reviews of Noah Baumbach
's and Spike Lee
's films - and his ad hominem
attacks on their creators - he was barred by publicists from press screenings of their films Greenberg
and Get on the Bus
. In the case of Greenberg, the ban was rescinded in time for White to watch the film with other critics. Director Darren Aronofsky
also publicly disparaged White's film criticism.
wrote that White "has staked out a position as a renegade film critic, the Last Angry Man, unafraid to attack popular favorites or make enemies with colleagues." His criticism has been described as "unique" and also as "thoughtful" since it "allows readers the opportunity to interpret films as more than just entertainment". Also, he has been described as "not boring" and "capable of wicked insights", "often-contrarian (and always fun to read)", "extremely knowledgeable", "immensely readable, fearless, provocative" as well as "passionate, idiosyncratic and a natural polemicist". Film critic Jack Mathews had described White as a "classic, unapologetic elitist" whose "haughty, theoretical approach is the stuff of academia and film journals", but also as "a critic in a world of cinema that does not exist, except in the margins of independent and avant garde film." Critic Kyle Smith
has argued that White "simply has a different aesthetic from that of the herd", while critic David Chen suggested that he "(perhaps too) vehemently believes in the integrity of his art and longs for the golden era when the mainstream still cared what film critics thought".
Detractors have criticized White for his "hyperbolic rhetoric". Critic Glenn Kenny
has called White "a bully and a hypocrite" and written that "the sub-theme of every White review [...] is that every other critic is a moral degenerate and an aesthetic cretin." Essayist Dan Schneider
dismissed White as a "critical clown" and "a contrarian with political and personal axes to grind", Commenting on White's negative review of Toy Story 3
, freelance writer Paul Brunick suggested that
Brunick concludes that
Because he often castigates critical and audience favorites, White has been labeled "contrarian for the sake of being contrary" and "America's most hated movie critic". Citing the straw man
arguments in White's review of the 2006 film Dreamgirls
, critic Jim Emerson wrote that
In 2009, following an eruption of controversy on the Rotten Tomatoes website over White's negative pre-general release review of District 9
(which ruined its 100% rating up to that point), Roger Ebert defended him against the "fanboys" of the "Tomatoes lynch mob":
However, after being presented with a list of films that White had liked and disliked, Ebert withdrew his overall support of White's work, writing "It is baffling to me that a critic could praise Transformers 2
but not Synecdoche, NY. Or Death Race
but not There Will Be Blood
. I am forced to conclude that White is, as charged, a troll
; a smart and knowing one, but a troll." White condemned Ebert's response, saying "the guy has won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism [...] Criticizing colleagues is not what we do". Ebert stated that he had shown "very poor judgment" in writing that entry.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
-based film and music critic known for his provocative and idiosyncratic film criticism, which some have characterized as contrarian
Contrarian
In finance, a contrarian is one who attempts to profit by investing in a manner that differs from the conventional wisdom, when the consensus opinion appears to be wrong....
. He is currently the editor of City Arts, for which he also writes articles and reviews. He was previously the lead film critic for the alternative weekly
Alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper, that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more...
New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
(1997–2011) and the arts editor and critic for The City Sun
The City Sun
The City Sun was a weekly newspaper that was published in Brooklyn from 1984 through 1996. Its primary focus was on issues of interest to African Americans in New York City....
(1984–1996). Other publications that have carried his work include Film Comment
Film Comment
Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
, The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, and First Things
First Things
First Things is an ecumenical journal focused on creating a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society". The journal is inter-denominational and inter-religious, representing a broad intellectual tradition of Christian and Jewish critique of contemporary society...
.
Early life
White was born in Detroit, MichiganMichigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
as the youngest of seven children. His family was the first African-American family to move to a primarily Jewish neighborhood, where he grew up. Raised Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, he later became Pentecostal, and identifies himself as "a believer."
His interest in journalism and film criticism began as a student at Detroit’s Central High School
Central High School (Detroit, Michigan)
Central High School is the oldest secondary school in Detroit, Michigan; it is staffed and operated by the Detroit Public Schools.-History:In 1858, Detroit's first high school opened on Miami Avenue. By 1863, due to increased enrollment, the school was moved to a building that had formerly housed...
, when he first read film critic Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
's book, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (book)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is Pauline Kael's second collection of reviews from 1965 through 1968, compiled from numerous magazines including The Atlantic, Holiday, The New Yorker, Life, Mademoiselle, The New Republic, McCall's, and Vogue...
whom he cites for "her willingness to go against the hype," along with Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
, for his "sophisticated love of cinema," as being a major inspiration on his choice of professional career. White is a recipient of a Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
degree from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
’s School of the Arts
Columbia University School of the Arts
The Columbia University School of the Arts , also known simply as the School of the Arts or as SoA, is the division of the university that offers Master of Fine Arts degrees in Film, Visual Arts, Theatre Arts, and Writing, as well as a Master of Arts degree in Film Studies...
.
Career
White was the arts editor for The City Sun, where he wrote film, music and theater criticism, for the span of its publication from 1984 to 1996. He was hired by New York Press in 1997 and wrote for the paper until it ceased publication in 2011. He then was made editor of the Presss sister publication City Arts.He is a member of New York Film Critics Circle
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....
, National Society of Film Critics
National Society of Film Critics
The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...
and New York Film Critics Online
New York Film Critics Online
The New York Film Critics Online is an organization composed of Internet film critics based in New York City. The group meets once a year, in December, for voting on its annual NYFCO Awards.-Awards:*New York Film Critics Online Awards 2003...
. He was the three time chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle (1994, 2009 and 2010), and has also served as a member of the jury at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
, Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
and Mill Valley Film Festival
Mill Valley Film Festival
The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
and was a member of several National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
panels. He has taught classes on film at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
.
In 1992 White won the 25th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor
Deems Taylor
Joseph Deems Taylor was a U.S. composer, music critic, and promoter of classical music.-Career:Taylor initially planned to become an architect; however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices...
Award for music criticism for "The Gloved One Is Not a Chump," his essay on Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's "Black or White" video.
White claims to watch "five to 10 movies a week" and "as many as 400 films a year".
Style and personal tastes
White, who describes himself as a "pedigreed film scholar," claims that "[l]iking [a film] or disliking it is irrelevant" to his reviews, and insists that "[he] tell[s] it how it is and write[s] what a film deserves" rather than offering mere personal opinion. He has stated that he has a "politically minded perspective on film" and is known for his often controversial "socio-political interpretations of cinema". Writer Matthew Ross cited White's "unrelenting tone of moral seriousness, caustic dismissal of [...] filmic sacred cows and obsessive championing of [...] relatively 'unhip' films" as well as his "unlikely compare-and-contrast reviews" as distinctive characteristics of his work. White's reviews often draw extended comparisons between films of disparate genres and historical periods, an approach Mark Jacobson described as a "Darwinian praxis [in which] all films must plead their case against all other similar films, with White as judge and jury."White, who has asserted in an interview that "most films are dismissable," has been described as the "most contrarian" of film critics for allegedly "position[ing] himself in diametric opposition to virtually every film critic on earth". White has dismissed these allegations, stating that he has never "said anything about a movie out of meanness or indifference" and that he always contrasts movies he evaluates negatively with ones he considers superior, as in his annual "Better-Than Lists". Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, a website that aggregates film reviews, indicates that he agrees with the consensus of other professional critics 52% of the time. He has been compared to such critics as Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
, Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
, Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Tynan
Kenneth Peacock Tynan was an influential and often controversial English theatre critic and writer.-Early life:...
and Nathan Cohen
Nathan Cohen
Nathan Cohen is a New Zealand rower. He has won gold in the Men's Double Sculls in the 2010 and 2011 World Rowing Championships.- References :* at sports-reference.com* at stuff.co.nz...
for his "intransigent refusal to think what people expect him to think."
White is known for his use of the term "hipster nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
" as a description of what he sees as a prevalent, and destructive, attitude toward film and the world, as well as his notion of "kinetic art" which he identifies in many action films. He coined the label "the American Eccentrics" to describe a group of "millennial" filmmakers including Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....
, Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
, David O. Russell
David O. Russell
David Owen Russell is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been praised for the loose, comic energy that characterizes his work, and is notorious for his explosive confrontations with cast members.-Early life:...
, Alexander Payne
Alexander Payne
Alexander Payne, born Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.- Early life :...
, Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has written and directed five feature films: Hard Eight , Boogie Nights , Magnolia , Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood...
, and Sofia Coppola
Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
whose works "offer an unabashed solipsism, whimsy, and undisguised film savvy."
White is known for his advocacy for the works of directors Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
and Brian De Palma
Brian De Palma
Brian Russell De Palma is an American film director and writer. In a career spanning over 40 years, he is probably best known for his suspense and crime thriller films, including such box office successes as the horror film Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission:...
and for the music and films of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
. In a 2002 Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound
Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...
poll he ranked Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence as the greatest film of all time.
Relations with other critics and filmmakers
White has bemoaned the state of contemporary film criticism, describing it as "intellectual anarchy" and saying that "the profession is in dismal shape, fucking dismal condition." In an online discussion with other film critics, White emphasized that "I don't read criticism for style (or jokes). I want information, erudition, judgment, and good taste. Too many snake-hipped word-slingers don't know what they're talking about". He has singled out Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
for particular condemnation, telling an interviewer that "I do think it is fair to say that Roger Ebert destroyed film criticism" and accusing him of "talking about movies as disconnected from social and moral issues, simply as entertainment". He has called Village Voice critic J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
"pathetic," "despotic," "traitorous," and "racist," describing him as "the scoundrel-czar of contemporary film criticism" whose malign "influence (as NYU instructor to the Times’ Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
and innumerable Internet clones) stretches from coast to coast, institution to institution"; he also categorically described Hoberman's associates in the film community as "brownshirts," "fascists," and "backward children." Other film writers he has singled out for criticism include A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
, David Thomson
David Thomson (film critic)
David Thomson is a film critic and historian based in the United States and the author of more than 20 books, including The New Biographical Dictionary of Film.-Career:...
, David Denby
David Denby (film critic)
David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
, Gary Indiana
Gary Indiana
Gary Indiana is an American writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He teaches philosophy and literature at the New School in New York City. He divides his time between New York and Los Angeles.- Fiction :...
, David Bordwell
David Bordwell
David Bordwell is an American film theorist and film historian. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1974, he has written more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including Narration in the Fiction Film , Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema , Making Meaning , and On the...
, Georgia Brown, Karina Longworth
Karina Longworth
Karina Longworth is an American film critic, film blogger, radio personality, author, and journalist based in Los Angeles. She is one of the founders of the film culture blog Cinematical and formerly edited both Cinematical and the film blog SpoutBlog and, while living in New York, was heard...
and Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum is an American film critic. She joined Entertainment Weekly as film critic in the 1990s. She has been featured on CNN, co-host on Siskel & Ebert At the Movies as well as a cultural, theater and television reviewer....
, who along with J. Hoberman he has accused of racism. Of such accusations, White has written that
White has been an outspoken opponent of online film criticism, which he associates with "amateurism, gossip [and] cliques" rather than the "education, expertise [and] experience" he attributes to professional film criticism. He has cited film review aggregators in general and Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
in particular as examples of how "the Internet takes revenge on individual expression" by "dumping reviewers onto one website and assigning spurious percentage-enthusiasm points to the discrete reviews" and "offer[s] consensus as a substitute for assessment." He has also stated his opinion that "there should be no film critics younger than 30" since they would lack the necessary scholarship and life experience.
In interviews he has repeatedly demurred when asked to identify critics other than himself whose work he values. However, in other settings he has praised the writing of Molly Haskell
Molly Haskell
Molly Haskell is an American feminist film critic and author. Her most influential book is From Reverence to Rape: the Treatment of Women in the Movies...
and GayToday.com critic John Demetry. Among film critics of previous generations, in addition to Kael and Sarris, White has credited James Agee
James Agee
James Rufus Agee was an American author, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S...
and former New York Times critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
.
Because of his consistently negative reviews of Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach is an American writer, director and independent filmmaker.-Background and education:Baumbach was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of novelist/film critic Jonathan Baumbach and Village Voice critic Georgia Brown. He graduated from Brooklyn's Midwood High School in 1987 and ...
's and Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
's films - and his ad hominem
Ad hominem
An ad hominem , short for argumentum ad hominem, is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it...
attacks on their creators - he was barred by publicists from press screenings of their films Greenberg
Greenberg (film)
Greenberg is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach. The film stars Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Jason Leigh...
and Get on the Bus
Get on the Bus
Get on the Bus is a 1996 film about a group of African-American men who are taking a cross-country bus trip in order to participate in the Million Man March. The film was directed by Spike Lee and premiered on the one-year anniversary of the march....
. In the case of Greenberg, the ban was rescinded in time for White to watch the film with other critics. Director Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky
Darren Aronofsky is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking...
also publicly disparaged White's film criticism.
Evaluations by others
Film critic and essayist Phillip LopatePhillip Lopate
Doctor Phillip Lopate is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. He is the younger brother of radio host Leonard Lopate.-Early life and education:...
wrote that White "has staked out a position as a renegade film critic, the Last Angry Man, unafraid to attack popular favorites or make enemies with colleagues." His criticism has been described as "unique" and also as "thoughtful" since it "allows readers the opportunity to interpret films as more than just entertainment". Also, he has been described as "not boring" and "capable of wicked insights", "often-contrarian (and always fun to read)", "extremely knowledgeable", "immensely readable, fearless, provocative" as well as "passionate, idiosyncratic and a natural polemicist". Film critic Jack Mathews had described White as a "classic, unapologetic elitist" whose "haughty, theoretical approach is the stuff of academia and film journals", but also as "a critic in a world of cinema that does not exist, except in the margins of independent and avant garde film." Critic Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith is an American critic, novelist and essayist. He is a staff film critic for the New York Post. His film reviewing style has been called "an exercise in hilarious hostility" by Entertainment Weekly....
has argued that White "simply has a different aesthetic from that of the herd", while critic David Chen suggested that he "(perhaps too) vehemently believes in the integrity of his art and longs for the golden era when the mainstream still cared what film critics thought".
Detractors have criticized White for his "hyperbolic rhetoric". Critic Glenn Kenny
Glenn Kenny
Glenn Kenny is an American film critic. Kenny served as a critic and editor at the film magazine Premiere from 1996 until it ceased publication in 2007...
has called White "a bully and a hypocrite" and written that "the sub-theme of every White review [...] is that every other critic is a moral degenerate and an aesthetic cretin." Essayist Dan Schneider
Dan Schneider (writer)
Dan Schneider is a United States poet, critic, film critic, essayist, and fiction writer best known for his criticism and literary website Cosmoetica. Schneider discovered poetry as a young adult, and has since published his poetry and essays in a number of magazines and newspapers...
dismissed White as a "critical clown" and "a contrarian with political and personal axes to grind", Commenting on White's negative review of Toy Story 3
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film, and the third installment in the Toy Story series. It was produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Lee Unkrich. The film was released worldwide from June through October in Disney Digital...
, freelance writer Paul Brunick suggested that
Brunick concludes that
Because he often castigates critical and audience favorites, White has been labeled "contrarian for the sake of being contrary" and "America's most hated movie critic". Citing the straw man
Straw man
A straw man is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position, twisting his words or by means of [false] assumptions...
arguments in White's review of the 2006 film Dreamgirls
Dreamgirls (film)
Dreamgirls is a 2006 musical drama film, directed by Bill Condon and jointly produced and released by DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures. The film debuted in three special road show engagements beginning December 15, 2006 before its nationwide release on December 25, 2006...
, critic Jim Emerson wrote that
In 2009, following an eruption of controversy on the Rotten Tomatoes website over White's negative pre-general release review of District 9
District 9
District 9 is a 2009 South African science fiction thriller film directed by Neill Blomkamp. It was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, and produced by Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham. The film stars Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, and David James...
(which ruined its 100% rating up to that point), Roger Ebert defended him against the "fanboys" of the "Tomatoes lynch mob":
However, after being presented with a list of films that White had liked and disliked, Ebert withdrew his overall support of White's work, writing "It is baffling to me that a critic could praise Transformers 2
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 American science fiction-action film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to the 2007 film Transformers and the second installment in the live-action Transformers series...
but not Synecdoche, NY. Or Death Race
Death Race (film)
Death Race is a 2008 action film produced, written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and starring Jason Statham. Though referred to as a remake of the 1975 film Death Race 2000 in reviews and marketing materials, director Paul W.S. Anderson stated in an interview and the DVD commentary that he...
but not There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood is a 2007 drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!. It tells the story of a silver miner-turned-oilman on a ruthless quest for wealth during Southern California's oil boom of the late 19th and...
. I am forced to conclude that White is, as charged, a troll
Troll (Internet)
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response...
; a smart and knowing one, but a troll." White condemned Ebert's response, saying "the guy has won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism [...] Criticizing colleagues is not what we do". Ebert stated that he had shown "very poor judgment" in writing that entry.
Books
- The Resistance: Ten Years of Pop Culture That Shook the World (ISBN 978-0879515867)
- Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur (ISBN 978-1560254614)
- Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles
Essays (partial list)
- "Avant-Lard: Is anyone still waging the fight against junk populism and elitism
- "What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Movies"
- "Discourteous Discourse: The social networking approach to film criticism is not about democracy"
- "Smugness: Self Satisfaction, Hollywood Style"
- "In Bed with Hollywood."
- "Do Movie Critics Matter?"
- "My Greenberg Problem - and Yours
- "Dear Wes Anderson: Why does it take you so long to make a movie?"
- "Wake Up and Smell the Oscars: They Stink!"
- "Our Soul Man"
- "Cinema Armondiso: A concise history of film"
Sources
- Roberts, Jerry. The Complete History of American Film Criticism. Santa Monica Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59580-049-7
- Lopate, Phillip (ed.). American Movie Critics: An Anthology From the Silents Until Now. Library of America, 2006. ISBN 1931082928
- Lee, Spike and Fuchs, Cynthia. Spike Lee: interviews. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2002. ISBN 1578064708
External links
- Armond White at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
- Armond White at New York PressNew York PressNew York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
- Armond White's Top Ten Lists 1997-2006