That was a good read. Thanks for sharing!
sometimes brilliant...Armond White!
Armond White is always spot on with his writing.
I disagree with him a great deal of the time (especially about Spike Lee), but I always walk away from his reviews with an appreciation for his perspective. He's a great critic, which is something I don't say often.
I'm not sure what it means that there's a positive review for a Morrissey album in the National Review, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. I'm a liberal, though—everything makes me uncomfortable.
What does his behavior have to do with the quality of his writing or observations?A "great" critic:
"The cantankerous Armond White, a editor for CityArts who apparently didn't feel his negative review of the film was quite enough, hurled expletives at the director as he took the podium. Mr. White is apparently known for such behavior. At last year's awards, he heckled Michael Moore, said critic Roger Friedman. Mr. McQueen didn't seem to hear the commotion.
The Film Critics Circle Chairman, Joshua Rothkopf, issued a statement regarding Mr. White's bizarre behavior: "It amazes me that we have members who are so self-serving, they would sacrifice the decorum of our group—both in public and during our confidential meetings—solely to satisfy their own egos. I can't believe we need to draft rules of conduct for adults, but apparently we do." He didn't immediately respond to requests for further comment.
But other than that, the evening was quite civilized."
Armond pretty much wrote himself into irrelevance in the worlds of film academia and criticism. Quite frankly, he is absurd.
This realization is significant precisely because it goes neither left or right. Conservatives may think Margaret Thatcher–bashing Morrissey has nothing to say to them, but his exacting, revelatory art completes or perfects important parts of their own social argument, including impatience with glib liberal sentimentality.