Aaron Smuts wrote:
> What needs to be explained is why people are
> reacting to this film so
> strongly.
I thought the same thing when Roger Ebert's Cannes
excoriation of Vincent Gallo's 'Brown Bunny' - for its
supposed gratuitousness, or its extremity, or whatever
- came up: Whence the passion? On what or whose behalf
is this film being loudly derided? Is the reviewer's
or critic's reaction somehow *exogenous* to the
subject film--even if (as with 'Heaven's Gate', which
has been praised by so many, here) there is the
appearance of a 'consensus' or wave among these
critics?
Movie critics/reviewers such as Denby & Ebert are too
often like perverse lifeguards, sitting not very
critically over choppy waves & floating garbage, while
blowing the whistle when the surf is at least a bit
clear and one may attempt a swim--by which I mean only
that I trust neither their eyes nor their judgements,
for all the authority on behalf of the imagined
'audience' they've been granted, by the media...
...and I look forward to seeing 'Kill Bill', for
myself!
- Greg Little
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