"World Peace..." review (National Review)

Armond White is always spot on with his writing.
 
sometimes brilliant...Armond White!

I don't think I have laughed this hard all year. Hahahahaha

God damn, you are hilarious.
 
Armond White is always spot on with his writing.

I disagree with him a great deal of the time (especially about Spike Lee), but I always walk away from his reviews with an appreciation for his perspective. He's a great critic, which is something I don't say often.

I'm not sure what it means that there's a positive review for a Morrissey album in the National Review, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. I'm a liberal, though—everything makes me uncomfortable.
 
I disagree with him a great deal of the time (especially about Spike Lee), but I always walk away from his reviews with an appreciation for his perspective. He's a great critic, which is something I don't say often.

I'm not sure what it means that there's a positive review for a Morrissey album in the National Review, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. I'm a liberal, though—everything makes me uncomfortable.

Armond pretty much wrote himself into irrelevance in the worlds of film academia and criticism. Quite frankly, he is absurd.

It's no secret that he would write a positive review about anything Morrissey does. He wouldn't dare ruin his track record.
 
A "great" critic:

"The cantankerous Armond White, a editor for CityArts who apparently didn't feel his negative review of the film was quite enough, hurled expletives at the director as he took the podium. Mr. White is apparently known for such behavior. At last year's awards, he heckled Michael Moore, said critic Roger Friedman. Mr. McQueen didn't seem to hear the commotion.

The Film Critics Circle Chairman, Joshua Rothkopf, issued a statement regarding Mr. White's bizarre behavior: "It amazes me that we have members who are so self-serving, they would sacrifice the decorum of our group—both in public and during our confidential meetings—solely to satisfy their own egos. I can't believe we need to draft rules of conduct for adults, but apparently we do." He didn't immediately respond to requests for further comment.

But other than that, the evening was quite civilized."
 
Thank you, Chickpea, for posting this review. I really enjoyed it.

A "great" critic:

"The cantankerous Armond White, a editor for CityArts who apparently didn't feel his negative review of the film was quite enough, hurled expletives at the director as he took the podium. Mr. White is apparently known for such behavior. At last year's awards, he heckled Michael Moore, said critic Roger Friedman. Mr. McQueen didn't seem to hear the commotion.

The Film Critics Circle Chairman, Joshua Rothkopf, issued a statement regarding Mr. White's bizarre behavior: "It amazes me that we have members who are so self-serving, they would sacrifice the decorum of our group—both in public and during our confidential meetings—solely to satisfy their own egos. I can't believe we need to draft rules of conduct for adults, but apparently we do." He didn't immediately respond to requests for further comment.

But other than that, the evening was quite civilized."
What does his behavior have to do with the quality of his writing or observations?
 
If you had read his reviews you'd know why that's not even worth bothering with.

But yeah, he is THAT ridiculous
 
Armond pretty much wrote himself into irrelevance in the worlds of film academia and criticism. Quite frankly, he is absurd.

It's really easy to write him off because he is SO deliberately contrarian so much of the time, but he's a very thoughtful writer with moments of real brilliance and insight. I stand by what I said regarding what I take away from his reviews, even if my verdict is often different from his, and even if I think his public behavior has been pretty deplorable on multiple occasions.

Do I like Armond White as a person? No, not really. But do I think his critiques are worth reading? Absolutely. They're much more thought-provoking than 90% of the critical writing I encounter these days.
 
Yes, easy to dismiss a genius with the insight to, I don't know, maybe compare The Turin Horse with War Horse. Shocker which one he preferred.

The story goes on, and on...and on.
 
The highly divisive, sometimes brilliant, sometimes insane, always contrarian film critic Armond White has written a very, very positive review for 'World Peace Is None of Your Business' for the National Review:

Peace Summit: It’s Morrissey’s World, We Just Vote in It by Armond White - National Review

He focuses almost entirely on the lyrical content, and clearly knows Morrissey's back catalog. It's an interesting read!
 
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Dare I say that this art hound has seemingly gotten it right?

This realization is significant precisely because it goes neither left or right. Conservatives may think Margaret Thatcher–bashing Morrissey has nothing to say to them, but his exacting, revelatory art completes or perfects important parts of their own social argument, including impatience with glib liberal sentimentality.
 
Does anyone still seriously believe that Morrissey was ever sincerely on the left, anyway???
Surely no one was surprised by his support of UKIP. And a few years ago the only objection he seemed to have about David Cameron - who is selling off the NHS, sold Royal Mail, waging a war against the poor and on the Welfare State etc - was that he was a supporter of fox hunting.
Morrissey says time and time again that he doesn't like people very much and he obviously values his wealth above most things, why on Earth would he ever support a radical agenda, instead of the values of the Right and its adherence to f***ing over the people and supporting the wealthy???
Also, he does love those skinheads, doesn't he?
 
I was reading yesterday the thing he wrote in the NME about Charles Hawtrey after he died where he refers to the death of "the real England", so even as far back as 1988 - long before the supposed "flirtation" with the Union Jack/Far Right - he was sounding like a right-wing reactionary.
The lyrics to 'Sweet and Tender Hooligan' could have been written by a stereotypical Daily Mail reader, couldn't they?

He could have drifted right after he became wealthy as so many do, but I've never been convinced by the idea that he was passionately left wing even in the days of The Smiths. Quite the opposite...
 
In a summer of wonders, WPINOYB is the stunner, the climax, the zenith that arrived to spin midsummer, a quantum leap into a new dimension. All the various dramas and foibles that attend it's troubled gestation and birth will be forgotten. "in the interregnum, morbid symptoms appears". There's no doubt now that "Morrissey" has burnt his bridges and also, hilariously, doesn't give a fcuk. After 5 years of fuming, plotting, scheming, he faced yet another Corporate Rock Plot as well as byzantine tour machinations and just said "Fcuk it!"

Other than the unconfirmed claim that "Morrissey" is now a genuine vegan aiming for a PlanetOfPlants dietary harmony, the money shot of this review is in these words:

"a troubled confrontation with everyday hegemony"

Whether or not "Morrissey" collapses and caves in and allows himself to be herded back into the Adult Fake Rebel Yell Rock Radio of Green Day-esque drivel is now irrelevant: he had the bollocks to tear up his own selfie in front of a very public mirror and in doing so, smashed down the wall that was imprisoning him with a dysfunctional coterie of 'fans' who love him only as a reflection of their own memories of fading youth.

There's no money to be made in recorded music and playing live appears to be a total prison bitch situation of travelling 18 hours a day to play to who? You lot? No thanks, would be the rational answer of anyone sane. If his health allows him to decamp to 'developing world' territories to tour this music and build a new Audience, then good luck to him. If he only craves money then writing is probably a better bet, but the novelty of "AutoHagiography" will not be repeated. Nobody reads books nowadays: if books were going to change anything, it would have happened with the printing press, etc. Ditto the gramophone. We're doomed.

If he retires, I hope he finds some kind of peace after turbulent decades wasted chasing the chimera of 'fame'. When he's laid to rest, the consensus will emerge that this record was his defining moment, his absolute rebellion against everything and everyone, including, of course, "Morrissey".

With every good wish
"BrummieBoy"

[swirling in the Black Pool of Dublin
Friday 1st August 2014 CE]

ps: Nobody is 'anonymous' on the internet. I pointed that out with my very first post on this site long ago and far away. Carry on imagining your ravings arent' being monitored by HR, but they are! ....trust me.....they are....

pps: still no sign of "Morrissey" here on the other island.
 
Thanks for posting this review, Anna.

Good and entertaining piece by brummieboy.
 

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