2013 is barely two weeks old, and already Armond White is being his Armond-iest. In case you missed it (via FilmDrunk), the cantankerous, contrarian film critic heckled Michael Moore at the the New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony this week. In presenting the award for Best First Film to David France for the now Oscar nominated “How to Survive a Plague,” Moore reflected that “the Cardinal couldn’t get through Mass at St. Patrick’s,” citing the film's coverage of the ACT UP protests that interrupted Christmas mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in the '80s, and this set off Armond.
“[Bleep] you!” “You liar!” “Shut up!” and “Drop dead!” he shouted at Moore with a friend. Armond said that Moore “disparaged Catholics,” adding, “I was offended…He was there to present the film and not present a personal political diatribe.” But Armond being Armond, he had even more to say, describing Moore as "a paranoid leftie buffoon who assumed he was in a room of fellow-travelers" and adding that "as a member of the NYFCC I resent that he used our event for a political platform.” But that's not all the burnsauce in the Armond cupboard this week.
White dropped his annual "Better-Than" list which has become a must read each year, if only because it's amusing to see how outrageous he can be in order to get attention. In an assessment of 2012, the list is notable this year for being mostly tame, though there are a couple of choice selections. They deserve to be read in full, so here they are:
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Taken 2 > Zero Dark Thirty
Neveldine-Taylor and Olivier Megaton revealed the post-9/11 zeitgeist in genre tropes, while Bigelow reduced the zeitgeist to an enigmatic comic strip, a “mission accomplished” delusion.
A Thousand Words > Argo
Brian Robbins and Eddie Murphy dared the most personal Hollywood critique since Clifford Odets’ The Big Knife; Ben Affleck trivialized Hollywood accountability.
As usual, Armond tends to be watching entirely different versions of movies than the rest of us, finding a "post-9/11 zeitgeist" in brainless, cash grabbing sequels and Hollywood critiques in a shelved Eddie Murphy vehicle. Keep on keepin' on Armond. Read his full list at the New York Press.
