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I got drunk and had an argument with Alex Billington - Page 2

post #51 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Will Kane View Post
The only argument for Billington being "defenseless" would be that he lacks the mental capacity to enter a debate with Devin.
Bingo. Alex doesn't have the arsenal to take on Devin in any sort of battle of wits. The other stuff I wrote makes it clear I don't blame Devin for unleashing when Alex fronted him.
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post #52 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:42am
An asshole is near a vagina, too.
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post #53 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:53am
I don't even want to watch the video because I know it will be painful, but the comments are pretty entertaining, with guest appearances by Devin and Alex.
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post #54 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:57am
The bottom line has got to be how does this affect CHUD and secondly how does it affect opinion on internet based film writing in general. Devin said shit that needed to be said and the sensationalist nature of this will bring the issue far more into the light than it has been. In that sense the personal attacks and name-calling are positive.

But wishing cancer on a guy obscures the issue for people who're seeing it presented for the first time because that's what they remember over and above the real and important points Devin was making. The fact Devin was drunk and was approached first absolutely lets him off the hook as far as I'm concerned, but the best thing for the fight* is if he makes a sober apology for the less classy parts of what he said and in the same breath reiterates and re-emphasizes the point about quality of writing and depth of knowledge being important for the credibility of internet film writing.

* I mean the fight to have the general public (and other media) give internet film writing more respect, not the fight in the video.
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post #55 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:00am
I love how the talkbackers keep refering to Alex and Devin as "online bloggers".
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post #56 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:04am
As opposed to semaphore bloggers.
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post #57 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:15am
"like Aids gloms onto T-cells" made my night.
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post #58 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:20am
Raping turtles?? HA.

Billington's defence consisted of: "This is so unnecessary"

And you can tell he's a douche because he wears those fucking wanker rectangular glasses that media types love.
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post #59 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:52am
Devin is a classy guy as far as I'm concerned and there is no need for an apology. Of course my opinion shouldn't count for much because as you all could probably guess I would have just raped Alex right there in front of everyone.
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post #60 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:52am
What I learned from watching the video and then wasting 15 or so minutes checking out this Alex fella's DARK KNIGHT and BIG FAN articles:

1. Alex is a pretty shitty writer.

2. Devin is a pretty shitty drunk.

Being a shitty writer, in my mind, is the greater offense.
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post #61 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:53am
I just read a part of Billington's article on how The Day the Earth Stood Still remake was way better than the original. I couldn't, for the life of me, finish reading that. My head hurts.
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post #62 of 217
1/26/09 at 2:19am
Devin has nothing to apologize for. Well, maybe the cancer jab but other than that everything I saw was absolutely deserved. The turtle rapist could have walked away at any time once he saw Devin was unresponsive to his douchebaggery but insisted on staying around.

If "How much do you get paid?" is your best and most coherent comeback you deserve the thrashing that guy received.
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post #63 of 217
1/26/09 at 2:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bucho View Post
The bottom line has got to be how does this affect CHUD and secondly how does it affect opinion on internet based film writing in general. Devin said shit that needed to be said and the sensationalist nature of this will bring the issue far more into the light than it has been. In that sense the personal attacks and name-calling are positive.

But wishing cancer on a guy obscures the issue for people who're seeing it presented for the first time because that's what they remember over and above the real and important points Devin was making. The fact Devin was drunk and was approached first absolutely lets him off the hook as far as I'm concerned, but the best thing for the fight* is if he makes a sober apology for the less classy parts of what he said and in the same breath reiterates and re-emphasizes the point about quality of writing and depth of knowledge being important for the credibility of internet film writing.

* I mean the fight to have the general public (and other media) give internet film writing more respect, not the fight in the video.
Coming from the point of view of believing your point is an important one, I agree with much of what Bucho types here - this only really plays to your existing audience. But now that you have their attention, write a follow-up and email it to all these fucking sites. Harry would run it; lots of sites would. Draw a line in the sand and group together as some sort of quality-assurance board. You can come together as a community and say "THIS group is committed to a certain level of quality in its writing." Would this work? Is it a horrible idea? I am in no shape to tell right now.

ETA: For what it's worth, I would not know who Alex Billington is if I didn't read CHUD. Anecdotal or whatever, but I forward CHUD articles to non-readers. Is Alex being passed around as much? I would bet no.

On the "people who are to blame for internet film journalists not being taken seriously" front, and nothing against his vast film knowledge, but Harry Knowles is a big reason for that. And you can't fix that without a time machine.
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post #64 of 217
1/26/09 at 2:38am
Laughed so hard. Well done and totally deserved.

"Can't we talk normally?"

"No."

"Why?"

"You're a douchebag."

EDIT: "That's what separates me from you, because I'm good at what I do"

"I don't know how you existing is a good thing"

Raping turtles.

God it's like a highlight reel of everything awesome.
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post #65 of 217
1/26/09 at 5:41am
Damn it looks like they took it down. I wish I'd seen it.
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post #66 of 217
1/26/09 at 5:51am
Why's it down?
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post #67 of 217
1/26/09 at 5:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quarant View Post
Why's it down?
http://twitter.com/slashfilm
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post #68 of 217
1/26/09 at 6:00am
Frick . . . Does it exist anywhere else?
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post #69 of 217
1/26/09 at 6:27am
Now is the time when the saying "nothing is removed from the Internet, it's only moved" has to prove itself!
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post #70 of 217
1/26/09 at 7:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by zak chase View Post
What I learned from watching the video and then wasting 15 or so minutes checking out this Alex fella's DARK KNIGHT and BIG FAN articles:

1. Alex is a pretty shitty writer.

2. Devin is a pretty shitty drunk.

Being a shitty writer, in my mind, is the greater offense.
Being a drunk will eventually erode whatever abilities Devin has as a writer, however. And then he'll be both.
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post #71 of 217
1/26/09 at 8:06am
I definitely want to see this.

I hope it winds up on YouTube.
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post #72 of 217
1/26/09 at 9:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluelouboyle View Post
And you can tell he's a douche because he wears those fucking wanker rectangular glasses that media types love.
Heh. Oops.
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post #73 of 217
1/26/09 at 11:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bitches Leave View Post
Now is the time when the saying "nothing is removed from the Internet, it's only moved" has to prove itself!
Fuck yes. I must see this.
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post #74 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by slashfilm guy
I'm really starting to believe that posting the video was a huge mistake on my part.
He was correct. The good points are lost in the drunken miasma, and it just looks opportunistic/exploitative on the part of slashfilm to post it. If anyone involved feels the need to be heard, a sober do-over is in order.

AlanP - not a fan of Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway, et al. He no dig them.
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post #75 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:19pm
It's kind of hard to feel too sympathetic for Billington, though, when he's crowing about "the real Devin being revealed" and shit.
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post #76 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
He was correct. The good points are lost in the drunken miasma, and it just looks opportunistic/exploitative on the part of slashfilm to post it. If anyone involved feels the need to be heard, a sober do-over is in order.

AlanP - not a fan of Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway, et al. He no dig them.
That's funny.

I wonder if being sober has anything to do with Billlington's nauseating overuse of word packages like "to be honest," "it goes without saying," "as everyone knows," and "needless to say." If it's needless to say... Ugh.
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post #77 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
It's kind of hard to feel too sympathetic for Billington, though, when he's crowing about "the real Devin being revealed" and shit.
Any sympathy for Billington was blown when he said Home Alone was a movie that defined a generation.

Not to mention that weird peach fuzz beard he had on. The hell was that?
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post #78 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:24pm
404. Shite. Someone captured it and is uploading it. Please?
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post #79 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:27pm
Dammit, hate that I missed it.

But it sounds like Phil has a good point - at a minimum Devin should write a Devin's Advocate or "open letter." Acknowledge that some personal asides got in the way, hell, apologize for them, while reiterating and standing by the legitimate points.
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post #80 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
It's kind of hard to feel too sympathetic for Billington, though, when he's crowing about "the real Devin being revealed" and shit.
Heh. "Revealed."

I think Devin's points were valid and accurate, drunk or no, but once it was obvious that Billington brought a butter knife to a gun fight he maybe should have held back. Either way, funny shit.
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post #81 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:47pm
video's gone
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post #82 of 217
1/26/09 at 12:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
It's kind of hard to feel too sympathetic for Billington, though, when he's crowing about "the real Devin being revealed" and shit.
Especially when "the real Devin" didn't seem all that different from the pretend Devin writing here.
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post #83 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:22pm
Devin's right - he should be more classy next time.

Removed from context, he makes some excellent points at the end of the video about the need for self-imposed standards when it comes to what we write (and read) on the web. Darwinism doesn't really apply on the web, and there's a lot of awful stuff out there.

The problem is that it's hard to take complaints about the general level of film site discourse seriously when the complainer is calling someone a dick-sucking faggot and wishing cancer upon him. And if you want to make a distinction between content and language or between what's printed on CHUD and what happens in public (though, importantly, it was a public setting highly relevant to the profession in this case), please ask yourself what you'd make of Roger Ebert if you saw him in this context.

The distinctions aren't important - professionalism is professionalism, and this sort of drunken confrontation, nearly as much as a film critic not seeing Citizen Kane, makes online film critics look unprofessional.
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post #84 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:23pm
It's just my opinion, but those of you bummed because the video got pulled really aren't missing anything special.

All the exclamations had me ready for one of the funniest things I'd seen in the past month or so. Instead, it was a pretty "meh" video of a very, very mean drunk endlessly berating a dipshit writer, with a heaping helping of ego thrown in.

The only thing that saved the vid was Devin's summation at the end. Had it not been for that, Dev really would've come off looking like an asshole on the level of Billington himself. But... I have to admit some very good points were made by Devin at the end when he was removed from Billington's presence.

It's a personal thing, but I can't stand ego when it's flaunted like it is in this video. If you really "have it," then you shouldn't have to state it like that. But... not everyone sees it that way.

Interesting vid, but as far as humor goes, you're not missing much.
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post #85 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:28pm
If I saw video of Ebert saying those things with the way he looks now- the scarf, the lipstick- I don't think I would ever stop laughing. But that's because I know he's normally an intellectual.
This Devin is the same we see here on the boards so it's kind of been-there-seen-that for me. I'm not wringing my hands over how geeks are seen by the rest of the media and the world, but yes, he's obviously enforcing a lot of bad stereotypes here.
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post #86 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:28pm
So, calling someone a "faggot" is an acceptable thing to do now?
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post #87 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:37pm
Yeah. Not having seen the video I am surprised that people are saying Devin came off that homophobic.

Devin appears to be a really progressive guy and I am saddened that he would resort to those types of attacks. Even to a douche like Billington.
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post #88 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:37pm
Not excusing anything, but Devin (as well as Billington) was pretty drunk and, near as I can tell, not asking to have the video put on the internet. What happened in Sundance should have...you know the rest.

Put yourself in those shoes for a second. If there were video online of me shit-talking with my friends while piss drunk, what you would see and hear on that video would result in me losing my job and whatever respect family and friends might have for me, and my in-laws might drive down and take my wife away. People don't get drunk to shore up their eloquence and class.
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post #89 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:44pm
Really, the only "winner" here was Moltisanti for this:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
Lenscrafters must be pissed this remained verbal.
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post #90 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:45pm
Thread Starter 
Ah, this thread has now entered the phase where people who have never been drunk and said things they regret act like humorless judgmental douchebags.

Also, no where on that video do I call Billington a faggot.
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post #91 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:46pm
You did accuse him of faggotry, Devin.

I feel badly for those who can't laugh at faggotry, or even "faggotry". I don't know if it was actually a word before Kids In The Hall.
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post #92 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:50pm
For my part, I wasn't trying to be judgmental so much as point out that the video probably isn't quite as funny as what those missing it may have cooked up in their heads.


God knows I've had my share of drunken nights that I regret. I can think of one specifically that involved me keying someone's car, and I still to this day cannot remember any of those parts of that night. For a long time I didn't believe the person telling me what I did (that was the first time I had "blacked out").

And honestly, for someone who's apparently as drunk as you were, you at least hold the words together very well. Pretty much no slurring at all. Drunken rants sound so much worse when they're slurred.
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post #93 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:50pm
Thread Starter 
It's interesting how this gets almost as many comments in a few hours as the entirety of my Sundance coverage to date. Maybe I should get into more fights, since most of you people don't seem to give a shit about the movies playing at the fest.
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post #94 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:52pm
On the other hand, there's as many threads on Alex Billington as there's reviewed Sundance movies. With the number of Devin's Advocate you did on the guy, it will generate some heat.
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post #95 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:52pm
Well, we can't really weigh in on those. I'm stoked for a number of films that weren't on my radar before your coverage, but my comments would be limited to "That sounds awesome!" "Philadelphia Phil! That's me!" and other pointless shit.

But while I'm here, thanks for putting Push and Big Fan and especially World's Greatest Dad on my list of must-sees.
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post #96 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
Ah, this thread has now entered the phase where people who have never been drunk and said things they regret and then post a video of it on the goddamn internet act like humorless judgmental douchebags.
Like a hot chick in a short skirt, you totally asked for it.
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post #97 of 217
1/26/09 at 1:56pm
Don't pull that bullshit "you people aren't reading my sundance coverage" nonsense. I really want to see Moon now, I hadn't heard of it before, and I don't have anything to say about it until after I've tracked it down.

We can all comment in the here and now about this. The general feel from other sites seems to be that you're fat, mean(No arguement there), and stupid. I agree with Phil. Get a big moving article of yours posted on AICN, /film, whatever will have it. Get the actual message out because it still needs to be said.
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post #98 of 217
1/26/09 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil View Post
Well, we can't really weigh in on those. I'm stoked for a number of films that weren't on my radar before your coverage, but my comments would be limited to "That sounds awesome!" "Philadelphia Phil! That's me!" and other pointless shit.

But while I'm here, thanks for putting Push and Big Fan and especially World's Greatest Dad on my list of must-sees.
Oh crap. Which reminds me that is another one of the reviews that has me wanting to see a movie that I'd otherwise have passed on.

I usually can't stand Williams, but thought that One Hour Photo was pretty good. And everyone knows this world could use more decent black comedies.

Devin, those of us coming late to the game only have what the rest of us are hearing about the video. Like I said, you come across as an enlightened, progressive individual. That's why the discussion on your comments surprise me.

For what it's worth. And that's not much.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
Like a hot chick in a short skirt, you totally asked for it.
This thread is to Devin what a pinball machine is to Jodie Foster.
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post #99 of 217
1/26/09 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf View Post
Ah, this thread has now entered the phase where people who have never been drunk and said things they regret act like humorless judgmental douchebags.
Drunk or not, you can't complain about the level of professionalism in the field when you act like this at a profession-related function. If you can't handle yourself when you're drunk, don't get drunk or don't go to film festivals where your drunkeness will make you look unprofessional.

Also, I do find this extraordinarily funny, so I don't know where you're getting "humorless" from:

(Devin to Billington, condensed) "You don't know what you're writing about and you're bringing down the level of critical discourse, you cum-sucking piece of shit."

It's pretty funny.
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post #100 of 217
1/26/09 at 2:29pm
Dammit, i leave for a weekend and i miss this.
I SO want to see that video!
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