His audience does likewise.
― Aimless, Saturday, 17 December 2011 00:48 (twelve years ago) link
I was kind of surprised to see a long interview w/ John Waters on his blog as he famously believes Waters' early, trademark films are not "real movies."
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 17 December 2011 00:50 (twelve years ago) link
can't believe robert christgau died
― t. silaviver, Saturday, 17 December 2011 00:51 (twelve years ago) link
His reviews of Lost Highway and Blue Velvet are unacceptable, but he mostly means well. Certainly not a hack as a critic, maybe a bit hacky as a writer. Considering how outrageous many film critics are it's not worth one's time to bother hating Ebert.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 17 December 2011 00:53 (twelve years ago) link
yeah idk trolling the ebert thread on big ilx was always fruitful, in the sandbox apparently not
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Saturday, 17 December 2011 00:55 (twelve years ago) link
i mean no one even thought he was actually dead!
disappointed in u guys
Certainly not a hack as a critic, maybe a bit hacky as a writer.
What's the difference?
― Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 17 December 2011 01:45 (twelve years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Friday, December 16, 2011 7:50 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink
i imagine Waters would prob agree with him?
― some dude (Mr. Stevenson #2), Saturday, 17 December 2011 01:57 (twelve years ago) link
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Friday, December 16, 2011 7:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Permalink
if it makes you feel any better i started to open a google news window before i saw who started the thread
― some dude (Mr. Stevenson #2), Saturday, 17 December 2011 01:58 (twelve years ago) link
haha thank you
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:00 (twelve years ago) link
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, December 16, 2011 7:45 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink
i.e. his criticism and thoughts weren't hacky but perhaps his writing technique was.
― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:02 (twelve years ago) link
OMG ROBERT EGERT IS DEAD ;_; RIP HE WAS MY FAVE MOVIE CRITIC HE KNEW SOOO MUCH ABT MOVIES TWO THUMBS UP TO HEAVEN DAWG
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:03 (twelve years ago) link
Hm. He wrote this about TOL, which I quoted above: "A film of vast ambition and deep humility, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence and view it through the prism of a few infinitesimal lives..."
That's not criticism -- it's description, with a couple of bloated nouns and adjectives appended as an introductory clause. He writes for a newspaper; he should know better than to state the obvious, especially when it sounds like the movie's PR blather.
Imagine if he studied Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and wrote: "A painting of vast ambition, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence with the light of well-placed stars across an endless canvas."
― Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:05 (twelve years ago) link
::imagines::
― є(٥_ ٥)э, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:06 (twelve years ago) link
tearing apart year-end listicle blurbs for not being deep crit is kinda dumb
― some dude (Mr. Stevenson #2), Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:07 (twelve years ago) link
No it's not. Excellent year-end blurbs persuade me to check out what I missed.
― Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:11 (twelve years ago) link
sorry OP i dun really wanna rip roger ebert not my kinda fetish
― if you ain't gonna wash it, i ain't gonna eat it, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:13 (twelve years ago) link
he was not glowing with admiration when he said early Waters was weird; he was irritated. As with Film Socialisme.
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:19 (twelve years ago) link
wait does jsho have taste in movies?
― mookieproof, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:20 (twelve years ago) link
some people write great year-end list blurbs but writing-wise it's rarely where anyone's at their best, just seems silly to highlight a 100 word 'best of the year' piece for being surface-level and PR-y -- if you can point out similar problems with his longform reviews then that's something else.
― some dude (Mr. Stevenson #2), Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:22 (twelve years ago) link
Fair enough.
― Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 17 December 2011 02:26 (twelve years ago) link
he sees cinema from inside a certain box and falls for heavily promoted middlebrow pap.
He engages with the mass public that exists almost wholly untouched by most of what you would regard as "serious" cinema (talk about existing inside a box). While the more mass you get, arguably, the more you merely reflect culture, Roger Ebert has probably had a greater influence on the world, or at least America, than Jean-Luc Godard or any number of equivalents. The less "middlebrow" he gets, the more of a receptive audience he loses. Doesn't mean you or I have to like him or find him useful (and honestly everything is utility), but that doesn't mean he isn't useful to the culture at large. He occupies the same space as Lady Gaga, say.
― C.K. Dexter Holland, Saturday, 17 December 2011 03:05 (twelve years ago) link
I don't see why people are getting butthurt over Ebert's Godard pan: IIRC he hasn't liked a new Godard film since Weekend, and he's also gone all revisionist re:the 60s color films.
― Tumblr Whites Off Earth Now!! (Sandbox Grisso-McCain), Saturday, 17 December 2011 03:22 (twelve years ago) link
― mookieproof, Friday, December 16, 2011 9:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Permalink
i have the best taste in everything come on
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Saturday, 17 December 2011 07:42 (twelve years ago) link
And another alias uncovered.
telling ppl they must check out Shame is not useful to any culture or your Aunt Millie.
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 17 December 2011 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
it's a verb, kev
― Dr Morbius, Friday, December 16, 2011 12:15 PM (Yesterday)
ha i was just joshing fwiw
― k3vin k., Saturday, 17 December 2011 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
just jhoshing
― if you ain't gonna wash it, i ain't gonna eat it, Saturday, 17 December 2011 13:28 (twelve years ago) link
Rip into Roger Ebert
― wow gould (step hen faps), Saturday, 17 December 2011 13:31 (twelve years ago) link
i saw tinker tailor soldier spy last night and came home and lolled at the review where he said he didn't understand it
― cad, Saturday, 17 December 2011 16:19 (twelve years ago) link
dude, I loved the '79 miniseries, and I really didn't understand the film either. Most of that was due to the short-shrifting of character, as I didn't care to care about the plot.
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 17 December 2011 16:21 (twelve years ago) link
really? i mean i guess it moved pretty fast in its own way but i did not find anything about it hard to follow
― cad, Saturday, 17 December 2011 16:27 (twelve years ago) link
plot is such a middlebrow conceit
― bloating forecast: ruff swells (p much resigned to deems), Saturday, 17 December 2011 18:28 (twelve years ago) link
Art should always be an exact transcription of reality, without the horrific artifice that is introduced by editing, condensation of time, or compression of meaning. amirite?
― Aimless, Saturday, 17 December 2011 18:36 (twelve years ago) link
is that a metaphor because ugh
― bloating forecast: ruff swells (p much resigned to deems), Saturday, 17 December 2011 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
Art transcribed directly from reality: http://www.wiredforbooks.org/images/ArtGarfunkel.jpg
― Aimless, Saturday, 17 December 2011 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
I liked his choice of presenters for the Ebert Presents show.
Ignatiy's Top 10
― gukbe, Saturday, 17 December 2011 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
and Christy Lemire as the Philistine
― Dr Morbius, Saturday, 17 December 2011 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
It's a good match!
― gukbe, Saturday, 17 December 2011 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
Did The Three Musketeers even open here? I saw a bunch of posters for it in Buenos Aires.
― jaymc, Saturday, 17 December 2011 21:12 (twelve years ago) link
It did, but Summit didn't promote it very much. Milla was pissed.
― gukbe, Saturday, 17 December 2011 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
the whole time?
gotta numb the shame somehow i guess
― bloating forecast: ruff swells (p much resigned to deems), Saturday, 17 December 2011 21:35 (twelve years ago) link
His reviews of Lost Highway and Blue Velvet are unacceptable, but he mostly means well.
yeah, god forbid someone challenge the critical party line on st. lynch. this is like when ppl pretend that the only important thing about pauline kael is that she 'didn't get' kubrick.
― j.d. again, Saturday, 17 December 2011 22:12 (twelve years ago) link
best thing about being middlebrow is being allowed to disregard any & all of lynch, tbph
― bloating forecast: ruff swells (p much resigned to deems), Saturday, 17 December 2011 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
I need to rewatch my TTSS dvd before I see the movie (whose premiere I saw disappointing stage actor Sam Waterston duck out of, one block away from where I saw David Lynch, as it happens). I'll probably never actually see the movie in the theatre, though.
― C.K. Dexter Holland, Sunday, 18 December 2011 13:19 (twelve years ago) link
i don't know that you'll miss much vs screening at home, tbh
― bloating forecast: ruff swells (p much resigned to deems), Sunday, 18 December 2011 13:21 (twelve years ago) link
"Serious" questions:1. Is Shame the most heterosexual movie of the year?2. Is it socially acceptable (pick your milieu) for homosexuals to express disgust at expressions of heterosexuality? Should it be?
― C.K. Dexter Holland, Sunday, 18 December 2011 13:22 (twelve years ago) link
I don't usually get much out of Anthony Lane, but I loved his writing about TTSS. A British thing, probably.
― C.K. Dexter Holland, Sunday, 18 December 2011 13:38 (twelve years ago) link
1. Is Shame the most heterosexual movie of the year?
No -- Beginners is.
2. Is it socially acceptable (pick your milieu) for homosexuals to express disgust at expressions of heterosexuality? Should it be?
It has been for three thousand years but you people never learn.
― Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 18 December 2011 13:59 (twelve years ago) link
lol isnt shame supposed to be disgusting tho
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Sunday, 18 December 2011 14:20 (twelve years ago) link
yes, esp when MF lets a man kiss him before a BJ
― Dr Morbius, Sunday, 18 December 2011 14:23 (twelve years ago) link
omg the horror
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Sunday, 18 December 2011 14:24 (twelve years ago) link
It has been for three thousand years but you people never learn
LOL
A lot of things were acceptable 3000 years ago. Didn't Plato write about this Sandusky fellow?
― C.K. Dexter Holland, Sunday, 18 December 2011 14:55 (twelve years ago) link
he wrote about OWS
― if you ain't gonna wash it, i ain't gonna eat it, Sunday, 18 December 2011 15:18 (twelve years ago) link
dude, I loved the '79 miniseries, and I really didn't understand the film either.
I had to watch it twice to fully grasp the competing interests/motivations/schemes, which I actually found refreshing.
― Simon H., Sunday, 18 December 2011 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
complex requiring effort to follow no-exposition style plotted movies are like drugs to me
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Sunday, 18 December 2011 17:49 (twelve years ago) link
like it didnt matter that it was basically presented in shopping list form
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Sunday, 18 December 2011 17:50 (twelve years ago) link
it was v beautiful too!
and gary oldman fucking ran shit
it looked fantastic, y
― bloating forecast: ruff swells (p much resigned to deems), Sunday, 18 December 2011 18:18 (twelve years ago) link