Author Archive

Nowhere Nowhere To Hide directed by …

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Nowhere To Hide directed by Lee Myung-Se Brian De Palma’s critical drubbing over Mission to Mars–reminiscent of the scene in Airplane! where passengers line up to smack an old lady–is the clearest evidence of the catastrophe that has befallen contemporary film criticism. Mission to Mars is a litmus test. It can be said with certainty
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De Palma’s Mission to Mars; Erin Brockovich Is Julia, All The Time

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Orphans’ Scots funeral storyline contrasts extremities of grief and optimism yet it’s unexpectedly funny and becomes a surprising means to our deepest feelings. Mullan’s use of the humor and idiosyncrasy debased by such films as There’s Something About Mary and American Beauty puts us back in touch with humanism. His story goes from life to
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Madonna’s Miserable Latest;BookWars;French Film, and Why It Blows

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

The Next Best Thing directed by John Schlesinger Judy Berlin directed by Eric Mendelsohn What’s left, The Next Best Thing demonstrates, is for Madonna to aggressively exploit the fan base that has not outgrown bustiers, torn fishnets and mock-religious jewelry–her gay male audience. As Los Angeles yoga instructress Abbie, Madonna actually plays a supporting role
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Ghost Dog; Reindeer Games; Drowning Mona

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai Directed by Jim Jarmusch Forest Whitaker returns to the prison of white imagination in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai–a movie with a concept dumb enough to excite those teenagers struck by the exoticism of chop-socky movies. The potentially commercial title suggests a correlative for the frustration
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The Boiler Room; Wonder Boys; Not One Less

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Boiler Room Directed by Ben Younger Hiphop seems to have brought out the ethnicity in everyone. Especially–strangely enough–white boys. The first half of the new film Boiler Room is charged by the candor of ethnic expression. Its white Jewish narrator Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) talks frankly about his ambition and greed, using the black rapper
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Scream 3 Is Trash; Noir in Review: A Great Italian Film You’ve Never Seen

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Joe’s So Mean to Josephine directed by Peter Wellington Describing her 1996 Sundance entry Joe’s So Mean to Josephine, Sarah Polley told a Toronto journalist, "I can’t believe it was written by a man!" Polley’s female-chauvinist comment proves how rarely our culture provides insight into male behavior, masculine pain. Joe’s So Mean to Josephine, a
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Geronimo:  Geronimo: An American Legend directed …

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

 Geronimo: An American Legend directed by Walter Hill "History is written by the conquerors," Braveheart’s narrator announced, but how many Mel Gibson lovers took full measure of that privileged boast? In the past decade, whenever nonwinners tried to rewrite history at the movies (Spielberg’s Amistad, Melvin Van Peebles’ script for Panther and now Norman Jewison’s
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Supernova; A Brighter Summer Day

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

Hill’s misfortune–and his unbowed talent–would be the talk of the cultural moment if bad luck and betrayal did not routinely hound serious artists in commercial enterprises like filmmaking and book publishing; or if Hill’s films were better understood by contemporary cineastes. Despite the hip cachet given to action genres there’s been little appreciation for how
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The Magnolia Syndrome The Magnolia Syndrome Two …

Written by Armond White on . Posted in Arts & Film, Posts

If you’re one of the suckers thinking about seeing Magnolia, here’re some necessary caveats. Question the general middling critical opinion that director-writer Paul Thomas Anderson is a "great talent." By what standards? It’s incredible that Anderson, by imitating Robert Altman’s 1993 Short Cuts so blatantly, and lengthily, has received such high praise. Magnolia’s L.A.-sprawl plot,
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