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Armond White (born in Detroit, Michigan) is a New York-based film critic, based at the alt-weekly New York Press. Recipient of a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University's School of the Arts, he has authored three books on popular culture. White won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Music Criticism in 1996. He was recently re-elected as Chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, a post he held in 1994. White has served on juries at the Sundance Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and several National Endowment for the Arts panels. He is a member of New York Film Critics Circle, National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Online. His reviews for New York Press, Film Comment and The City Sun have been discussed in The New York Times, Time magazine, Cineaste and Sight and Sound and the web magazine Senses of Cinema.
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Books
White is the author of The Resistance: Ten Years of Pop Culture That Shook the World (Overlook Press), Rebel for the Hell of It: The Life of Tupac Shakur (Quartet Books), and Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles (Resistance Works, WDC).
DVD liner notes penned by White include: Chameleon Street (Image), Jean-Marie Straub's The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (New Yorker), Moshen Makhmalbaf's The Silence (New Yorker), Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (Criterion), Trouble in Paradise (Criterion), George Washington (Criterion), Rohmer's Love in the Afternoon (Criterion), Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep (Milestone), David Lean's Hobson's Choice (Criterion), Francois Truffaut's The Last Metro (Criterion). White's DVD commentary can be heard on the Warner Bros. releases Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again, A Piece of the Action and Superfly. White's insights are also featured on the "Chameleon Street" commentary track.
Birth of a Nation'hood (Pantheon), edited by Toni Morrison. White's essay "Eye, the Jury" examines popular perception of the legendary O.J. Simpson trial.
New York Calling (Reaktion Books), edited by Marshall Berman and Brian Berger. White's essay "Speaking Truth to Power" discusses 1990s New York City life and his tenure at The City Sun newspaper through a critique of the Spike Lee film Clockers.
In First of the Year (Transaction), an anthology of articles originally published in the alternative quarterly First of the Month, several White pieces are reprinted, including his essays on The Matrix, Pearl Harbor, War of the Worlds, Morrissey's You Are the Quarry and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center.
Phillip Lopate's survey: American Movie Critics: An Anthology From the Silents Until Now (The Library of America) includes White among the outstanding practitioners in the field, reprinting two of White's City Sun reviews of Spike Lee films: "Rebirth of a Nation" (on Do the Right Thing) and "Malcolm X'd Again" (on Malcolm X).
White's writing has also been anthologized in National Society of Film Critics collections, The A List, The X List, They Went Thataway, Foreign Affairs, Love and Hisses.
Lecture
Since 1993, White has coordinated an annual program of music videos for New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center. His programs and interview-guests have included Hype Williams, Mark Romanek, Marcus Nispel and Ben Stokes.
Criticism
Internet bloggers have referred to Armond as a "contrarian for the sake of being contrary" because he "position[s] himself in diametric opposition to virtually every film critic on earth".[1] Essayist Dan Schneider had described White as a "critical clown" and "a contrarian with political and personal axes to grind".[2]
In August 2009, Roger Ebert wrote a blog "In defense of Armond White" commenting on White's negative review of District 9. Although Ebert gave the movie a positive review, he defended some of White's criticisms. However, after considering responses from the readers, Ebert "[withdrew his] overall defense of White" and concluded that "White is, as charged, a troll; A smart and knowing one, but a troll."[3]
Number ones from top ten lists
- 1997: Amistad
- 1998: Saving Private Ryan
- 1999: A Moment of Innocence
- 2000: George Washington
- 2001: A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- 2002: Femme Fatale
- 2003: Together
- 2004: Vera Drake
- 2005: Munich & War of the Worlds
- 2006: Broken Sky
- 2007: The Darjeeling Limited
- 2008: Happy-Go-Lucky
- 2009: Everlasting Moments
References
- ^ "The House Next Door: White Power: Ten Armond White Quotes that Shook My World". Thehousenextdooronline.com. 2007-12-10. http://www.thehousenextdooronline.com/2007/12/white-power-ten-armond-white-quotes.html. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
- ^ "Roger Ebert Praises Cosmoetica And My Film Criticism" at Cinemension: The Best In Film Criticism. Retrieved on 2009-12-15.
- ^ Joe, Dr. "Roger Ebert's Journal: Darwin, My Hero Archives". Blogs.suntimes.com. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/08/in_defense_of_armond_white.html. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
External links
- Armond White at the Internet Movie Database
- Armond White at Rotten Tomatoes
- Resistance Works, WDC publisher of Keep Moving: The Michael Jackson Chronicles
- "The Critic" — Filmmaker magazine interview with White
- Beyond Entertainment: An Interview With Film Critic Armond White in Senses of Cinema
- Profile of White in New York magazine
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