![Army of Shadows (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]](http://cdn.chud.com/f/f0/50x50px-ZC-f0e594b1_B0047P5FSQ-41wkQTh1mbL.jpg)
http://ftl.nypress.com/21/17/news&columns/feature3.cfm
I came across this article, and while I can't say that I necessarily agree with what White is saying (nor can I really say that I disagree), it's still an interesting read and I thought it might generate some discussion here on the boards.
I'm not going to repost the entire article here, as it's a bit long, but here are some of the highlights.
And then there's this:
I'm not sure what to say about this. His seeming dismissal of films like There Will Be Blood, United 93, A History of Violence, etc., combined with his stance on directors like Cuaron, del Toro, Van Sant, and Cronenberg (in which he seemingly writes them off), seems almost like he's trying to be contrary just for the sake of it. Plus, he complains about a perceived elitism among internet critics, but this whole article reeks of elitism.
I don't know. Either way, it's an interesting read.
I came across this article, and while I can't say that I necessarily agree with what White is saying (nor can I really say that I disagree), it's still an interesting read and I thought it might generate some discussion here on the boards.
I'm not going to repost the entire article here, as it's a bit long, but here are some of the highlights.
Quote:
| What we don’t talk about when we talk about movies these days reveals that we have not moved past the crippling social tendency that 1990s sociologists called Denial. The most powerful, politically and morally engaged recent films (The Darjeeling Limited, Private Fears in Public Places, World Trade Center, The Promise, Shortbus, Ask the Dust, Akeelah and the Bee, Bobby, Running Scared, Munich, War of the Worlds, Vera Drake) were all ignored by journalists whose jobs are to bring the (cultural) news to the public. Instead, only movies that are mendacious, pseudo-serious, sometimes immoral or socially retrograde and irresponsible (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Army of Shadows, United 93, Marie Antoinette, Zodiac, Last Days, There Will Be Blood, American Gangster, Gone Baby Gone, Letters From Iwo Jima, A History of Violence, Tarnation, Elephant) have received critics’ imprimatur. |
Quote:
| The new inclination is to write esoteric criticism. Post-Tarantino cinema has wrung the pop aesthetic dry, so the new gods of criticism have made totems of movies so unwatchable and so unappealing that they prohibit the basic pleasure and amazement of moviegoing. Critical babble doesn’t talk about what matters, but it sustains Ten Current Film Culture Fallacies: 1)“The Three Amigos” Iñárritu, Cuarón and del Toro are Mexico’s greatest filmmakers while Julian Hernandez is ignored. 2) Gus Van Sant is the new Visconti when he’s really the new Fagin, a jailbait artful dodger. 3) Documentaries ought to be partisan rather than reportorial or observational. 4) Chicago, Moulin Rouge and Dreamgirls equal the great MGM musicals. 5) Paul Verhoeven’s social satire Showgirls was camp while Cronenberg’s campy melodramas are profound. 6) Brokeback Mountain was a breakthrough while all other gay-themed movies were ignored. 7) Todd Haynes’ academic dullness is anything but. 8) Dogma was a legitimate film movement. 9) Only non-pop Asian cinema from J-horror to Hou Hsiao Hsien counts, while Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and Stephen Chow are rejected. 10) Mumblecore matters. |
I don't know. Either way, it's an interesting read.
