Archive for November 7th, 2009

Welp, the GOP has my vote!

A pleasantly exhausting day of cleaning and relaxing (more the latter than the former, mind you, but still).

I just can’t bring myself to spend the hours necessary to make the seven of you laugh, so I’ll cover whatever I need to from today’s paper tomorrow. B’until then, I wanted to share with you my favorite paragraph from Armond White’s cover story in this week’s New York Press (Pride & Precious: You can thank media titans Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry for much of the hype surrounding Lee Daniels’ film [sic] Precious. Armond White calls it the ‘Con Job of the Year.’):

“The hype for Precious indicates a culture-wide willingness to accept particular ethnic stereotypes as a way of maintaining status quo film values. Excellent recent films with black [sic] themes — Next Day Air, Cadillac Records, Meet Dave, Norbit, Little Man, Akeelah and the Bee, First Sunday, The Ladykillers, Marci X, Palindromes, Mr. 3000, even back to the great Beloved (also produced by Oprah) — have been ignored by the mainstream media and serious film culture while this carnival of black [sic] degradation gets celebrated. It’s a strange combination of liberal guilt and condescension.”

(this just beat out the sentence “Daniels’ cast lacks that uncanny mix of love and threat that makes Next Day Air so August Wilson- authentic[sic].” for the #1 slot)

This bears repeating: “Excellent recent films… like Next Day Air… Meet Dave, Norbit, Little Man… First Sunday… Marci X… have been ignored by… serious film culture… It’s a strange combination of liberal guilt and condescension.”

When I was a child, my father and I saw movies together almost every weekend. If I suggested a movie to see and he said, “Siskel and/or Ebert said it’s awful” my response was always, “remember what they said about Stripes.”

I tell you this to illustrate the point that no critic will ever agree with your personal sensibilities 100% of the time; even the great Gene ‘n’ Roger occasionally mistook a classic for a dud. But for Armond White to blame “liberal guilt and condescension” for the lack of attention given to Little Man (Marlon Wayans’ head CGI’d onto a baby!) and Marci X (Damon Wayans teaches Lisa Kudrow how to rap!) is kind of like me saying that John From Cincinnati would still be on the air if Republicans weren’t so greedy and hateful towards homosexuals (actually, a case could be made for my argument, if you have a few hours).

Armond White is out of his mind.

Asta la mañana, kids.