No, seriously. What are you on?
I decided to write this with the intent of posing a legit question to film critic Armond White. Something along these lines…. Dear sir, with an open mind and willingness to believe you, I’d simply like to ask why do your movie reviews so often differ with the vast majority? Surely it must be statistically impossible for you to just happen to go against the norm nearly every single time. Quite simply, it seems intentional, how do you respond? After reading his negative review of The Social Network, where he is one of only 3 negative reviews out of 122, its clear the specificity of this film requires I focus on it alone and save the question for another time.
White dislikes The Social Network for, as he puts it, the glamorization of the disconnect that the internet creates. My first thought was glamorization is in the eye of the beholder, perhaps he just sees it as glamorizing. But what follows has scarcely no reference to the film at all. His review is actually judgement upon the character of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and how his creation enabled millions of other “nerds” to clutter up the media world with their obnoxious, uneducated opinions and movie fandom.
Not content to stop at just a review of the film, he continues with this lovely article where he continues to assail “geeks” and “nerds” as the downfall of the once proud industry of film criticism. He hates that the “established professional film critics” are being taken to task by uneducated, unqualified film fans. He refers to them as frat boys. I find this ironic, since frat boys is a metaphor usually reserved for industries that behave like exclusive clubs. Like I don’t know um… film critics.
I cannot explain his other reviews, and am no longer interested in doing so. I can say very clearly that his objection to The Social Network seems 100% based in feeling unappreciated as brilliant writer of film criticism. He was right about one thing. The movie does glamorize the internet. The awesome internet which ultimately gives voices to the millions of people whose opinions, as it turns out, actually matter. Mr. White, if you are as you say, part of dying breed, then I can only say natural selection is working perfectly.
