Armond White At It Again: Hates on Multiple Award Winner Precious
Everyone’s favourite contrarian critic Armond White has once again made his presence felt this week, after delivering a scathing review of the Lee Daniels film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. The movie, which hits select theatres this weekend, is riding a massive wave of Oscar buzz after picking up awards at Sundance, TIFF and the San Sebastian Film Festival earlier this year. (Last year’s People’s Choice Award winner in Toronto was Best Picture winner Slumdog Millionaire.) Precious is currently sitting at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, so of course White doesn’t like it. However, the fact that he gives it a negative review isn’t all that surprising — it’s what he says about it that will blow your mind.
“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 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 degradation gets celebrated. It’s a strange combination of liberal guilt and condescension.”
Did you catch that? He actually calls Meet Dave, Norbit and Little Man “excellent recent film with black themes”. It also goes without saying that he thinks they are better films than Precious. Well, I have yet to see Precious, but I am now entirely convinced that this man is insane. Read his full review over at the New York Press, and check out a trailer for Precious after the jump.
Comments (15)
what a fuckin tool.. How can anyone pay this idiot to review movies? It would be better if they just took a shit on the review pages and smeered it out..
Posted by pcch7 on November 5th, 2009What the hell are “black themes”?
Posted by N.M.Miller on November 5th, 2009This is bullshit. Saw the movie a week ago and it was pretty good.
Posted by RaphNL on November 5th, 2009im pretty certain he’s just saying those things to get attention, cause thats what he is an attention whore
Posted by brugalito on November 5th, 2009As Roger Ebert once saiud it, he’s the film critic troll. Don’t feed the troll, people. Try not to make himself noticed. And let’s face it, no one must ever take anyone who uses “excellent” and “NORBIT” in the same sentence with a shred of seriousness.
Posted by Juan Carlo Rodríguez on November 5th, 2009Seriously. What are black themes?
Most of the movies he listed were plots that FEATURED black people. Like Mr 3000 was about a baseball player. Obviously it wouldn’t be the same movie if you replaced Bernie Mac, but I believe the underlying theme was based on age and credibility, not race.
This fools trollin.
Posted by mark on November 5th, 2009this looks better shot than all those other ones combined.
Posted by kris on November 5th, 2009great example there Mark, indeed Mr. 3000 could have been played by anyone of Bernie Mac and there would not be much to change, its not like being an aging athlete reaching a career milestone is some cornerstone of the black experience.
I hate to make a joke of it, but I just noticed… Armand White. A. White – CB4 reference anyone?
Posted by Goon on November 5th, 2009Little Man! That’s classic.
Posted by Henrik on November 6th, 2009What is CB4?
Posted by Henrik on November 6th, 2009http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKMggf-Pupw
CB4 is a Chris Rock movie from the early/mid 90s about gangsta rap. I imagine for a lot of people, seeing it today wouldn’t resonate, as it is definitely dated, but I watch it once in a while since it was one of the few things I had wore out on VHS before the DVD revolution.
Posted by Goon on November 6th, 2009I AGREE!!! I SOO SO AGREE WITH YOU ARMOND!! Not about Norbit being an “excellent film” of course not, Norbit was a little to superficial and corny, but Next Day Air, Lady Killers etc. All good, and completely ignored. But this film perpetuates and facilitates this stereotype of African Americans as living these dark and troubled lives. I’m so so bothered by it! Halle Berry won an oscar for playing a welfare mother with an obese child whose father is on death row “typical”? The great Denzel Washington got an oscar for playing a corrupt cop and Taraji P. Henson got a nomination for reprising our good ole “Mammie” role! I accept teh films message and I’m sure it will make me feel things and cry, but why is this all we ever see of “us” in films?
Will my my scripts that don’t have that kind of darkness and pain make it, or will it be conbsidered “unrealistic”?
Posted by Nadia Rushedge on November 6th, 2009BTW, I don’t doubt that it’s not a good film, I just feel, enough already! WE are about much more. MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE, and we need to be seeing it in films. It’s like expecting every oriental asian film to be about kung fu or some kind “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” concept.
Posted by Nadia Rushedge on November 6th, 2009It was great to read a review with opposing thoughts. Granted some of his films references were waay off like Meet Dave, Norbit and Little Man, really! That aside, this film reeks of self pity porn but I’ll check it out before making any more assumptions.
Posted by Marc on November 8th, 2009The person who published this doesn’t know what he is talking about — I’ve done film reviews and Precious does sound deeply flawed. Even this attack on White, perhaps unbeknownst to the person above, could be tainted by racism.
Posted by Anonymous on November 13th, 2009Leave a Reply