Armond White "No one under 30 should be a film critic"

It was excruciating, yet kind of comical, listening to infamous film critic Armond White of New York Magazine, on slashfilm's podcast last night. The man is informed, and well-educated, but is arrogant as hell. There was an uproar once White disrupted the perfect tomato-meter score of Toy Story 3, but at that point I was still unaware of who this man actually is. Maybe he had a legitimate reason for disliking Toy Story 3, maybe a legitimate reason for disliking Inception. I have read his critical analysis on these films, they exercise great vocabulary and he explains well why he doesn't like these movies. Listening to him on that podcast though I couldn't help but cringe at his sheer arrogance. He was asked if there was anything at all he liked about Inception. He simply said no. Even if it bored the hell out of you, and just wasn't your type of movie, there is still effects, acting, ect. to be admired. His review of Inception attacks Nolan as a con artist, by manipulating his audiences. Yet, this is being said by the man who admired Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which is EXACTLY the kind of summer blockbuster that does manipulate an audience!

In the world of movie criticism, you have to realize that every movie is subjective. I can't get pissed at Mr. White if he doesn't like a couple movies that I love. In his podcast he went on to insult Roger Ebert's style of film criticism as well to say that the internet is killing the profession. A lot of people, like myself, love critiquing film. How many readers do I get? Probably about 50- 100 viewers per review and not even 25 people will read this article. I am typing it up anyways, because I enjoy doing it. I am not trying to kill people like Armond White's career, but at this point he should be more worried that he is killing his own career as a troll. In the movie criticism business you have two types of critics, those who judge on their personal opinon and those who judge on how the target audience will like the film. White is strictly selfish with his review and at times it feels he is just attacking to, well attack. If I were Roger Ebert I wouldn't shed any notice of the alligations White put toward him, Ebert has better things to do. Once again I am not bashing Armond because he hated Toy Story 3 and Inception and praising Ebert because I agree with him more, in fact one of my favorite of the year (Kick-Ass) Ebert hated and with just cause.

Another thing about Armond is he says "No one under 30 should critique movies." This doesn't bother me too much. As you all know I am 18, and I am reviewing movies. Armond goes onto say that when you are under 30 you aren't informed enough about art, literature, or even older movies to be able to critique a movie. So when a film like Twilight or Harry Potter comes out and a young adult like myself is the target audience, would that not make my opinon more valid then someone older and more educated? When I critique movies I offer my own personal opinon and shed some insight on how it would be to the target audience. I would've hated Despicable Me and gave it a very low review, but the fact that I didn't find it funny doesn't mean the young kids won't, the movie is not for me, it is for them. Someone my age is suppost to be in Kick-Ass or MacGruber. I awarded Despicable Me 2.5/5 clearly in my review because, even though I thought the emotion was illbalanced, and the 3D was "tacky." Those kind of things aren't going to matter to young kids who will laugh their asses off in this movie.

What I am trying to say is, I no longer will accept an Armond White review as valid criticism. It is to biased, and the man seems to be just wanting attention. Most film critics are arrogant, but when reviewing your film I strictly believe it shouldn't just be you trying to get in the limelight, you are writing about a product someone has worked very very hard on, you can't just give them the negativity, you need to do your job and critique which at times includes offering suggestions of improvement and compliments on what they did right. Which is why I use my What's Good and What's Bad format.