Can't remember the last time I went to his website. Probably been a decade at least.
Can't remember the last time I went to his website. Probably been a decade at least.
"Quint" and "Capone" both turned their backs on Knowles and resigned from AICN today.
I think it's easy to dismiss that site's relevance nowadays, but you have to remember that it's still fucking going for almost two decades, compared to so many movie sites that have long shuttered. I think now that all the OG writers of that site are gone, it's either going to die very soon or about to become... something.
Even the guys who have left the site a long time ago are now trying to distance themselves.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
No shit. I bet I've been there a half a dozen times and every time I was annoyed at its stupid layout, terrible clickbaity titles, and well, everything in general. Any time I've seen AICN attached to a quote I immediately ignored it.
This was never really about Harry to me. (Even less so as people on social media make it about (a) his appearance or (b) his professional ability. He's an easy dude to bag on but that's irrelevant to the accusations.)
I found it much more disturbing that Tim League and his wife covered for Harry, and that Harry was a known groper for so long. Prominent fanboy crix denounced AICN and Alamo---but their outlets still sent people to FantasticFest. Which, to me, either makes them rank hypocrites or empty gasbags.
Beyond that, who do they think they're fooling? That community isn't so large---they had to have known, and known for years. (I also find it bizarre that the woman making the accusations went to work for Alamo long after the alleged incidents.)
League has more or less communicated that he doesn't give a shit about female patrons or female staffers, yet a lot of people equivocated and bent over backwards to rationalize their attendance at FantasticFest, write about it, and tweet about it. All of which is tacit support for Alamo. I mean, how dumb is everyone in Austin? This is a company that, in the middle of multiple sex scandals, decides to show a porn film in a "secret screening." Seriously, how did people there not riot? How is it that anyone at the officer level within Alamo still has a job? JFC.
Anyway, I fully expect that after a few more "official statements," exactly nothing will change.
PS: I was relieved to see that Vespe resigned. He's a decent guy and doesn't deserve this shit.
PPS: Cargill's pseudo-statement of sympathy would be funny if it weren't pathetic. He's too dumb to read between the lines and realize every woman around him essentially just said they don't trust him.
Last edited by Irish; 09-25-2017 at 08:16 PM.
It was always an eyesore, but right when it first hit, it was the vanguard of nerd movie culture online. CHUD was another one I can dimly remember from those halcyon days of vaunting fuck-the-man* criticism and admittedly juicy scoops.
On that note, one more time before the lights come up, two classic AintItCool standards: Knowles' NSFW take on Heroes' cheerleader, and Knowles' NSFW review of Blade 2.
Neither of which should ever be read by anyone, but here we are.
Not really that bizarre. Like you said, the community isn't that large, and Harry and League are kings of geek mountain. Any woman who wants to be a part of this slice of film fandom was essentially made to feel like they had the choice to just put up with it when working within the industry, or abandon their passion entirely.
The second woman who came forward and is posting creepy unsolicited DMs Harry sent her said pretty much said this. She never came forward with Harry's harassment of her because she figured it would essentially be the death of her connections in film writing, and she's posting messages from other women who are still not coming forward with their stories because of exactly that.
This is it right here, where I've come to. I've spent so much money buying Mondo posters and soundtracks and going to Drafthouse, and even buying the print issues of BMD, being such a cheerleader for them, and was going to attend the satellite Fantastic Fest this year, so when the Faraci secret came out, I was stupidly and naively thought I would just stay away from them for a year or so and see how they would handle their fuck up. But now it was clearly way too optimistic (and selfish) of me to think that, and this is clearly a deeper problem. No more Mondo products for me. No more going to the Alamo. I will put up with 1000 blaring cell phones during movies before I believe these guys again.
Not sure if you also meant to say that him not being trustworthy is meant to say something about him, but it doesn't, right? Women not completely trusting their male friends when it comes to this stuff seems to be the norm, and probably rightfully so, even if it's just a latent feeling deep inside.
Movie Theater Diary
Yeah. I guess back during those days, I wasn't really paying attention to western cinema, so my AICN and CHUD was HKFLIX, City on Fire, Kung Fu Cinema, and, for underground releases, Blackest Heart Media. I definitely visited CHUD far more than AICN.
Speaking of Kung Fu Cinema and Mark Pollard...
https://worldfilmgeek.com/2015/07/19...ema-2003-2015/
I meant this subset of the critical community is small. Playlist, Screencrush, Uproxx, Slashfillm, Film School Rejects, The Site Formerly Known as Hitfix, Movie Pilot, Bloody Disgusting, AICN, Birth Movies Death, etc etc. All those people know each other, see each other at press screenings and film festivals, and talk privately year round. Gossip happens as a matter of course. I'm sure most of them know where the rest of the virtual bodies are buried. Based on what I've heard and read, there are plenty more.
I can understand not wanting to be blacklisted. When the Faraci thing broke, former critic Elisabeth Rappe had a lot to say about how "rapey" the online critical community actually was. She left criticism altogether when certain editors labeled her "difficult" after she wouldn't brook the harassment. (Curiously, the "reporting" done by Indiewire neglected to include any women who did speak openly about harassment last year. I mean, wtf? If I were a self-proclaimed "film journalist," people like Elisabeth Rappe and Britt Hayes would have been my first phone call.)
Anyway, I thought it was bizarre for two reasons: (1) If I were made to feel physically unsafe at an event, and the guy running it let me twist in the wind, I wouldn't go work for him later because I wouldn't be able to trust him. At a bare minimum, I'd expect my employers to at least pretend to have my interests in mind. (2) Working for Alamo undercuts her accusations, and any claim of distress, now.
Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, but I'll hazard a guess and say: That hasn't been my experience and I'm guessing, based on things you've said in other contexts, that it hasn't been yours, either.
Put simpler: If somebody doesn't tell you something because they're afraid of how you'd react---especially when it doesn't involve you directly---then on a fundamental level, they don't trust you.
Cargill had multiple women tell him they didn't feel safe around him and he didn't pick up on it. Instead, he wrote some self serving, macho bullshit about how, going forward, we can't let this happen on "our watch." Like Jesus, gimme a break, Cargill.
Last edited by Irish; 09-25-2017 at 09:39 PM.
I can't confirm the absence of something. I don't know what people aren't telling me. I'd like to think that my female friends would confide in me if they get assaulted by one of my male friends, but if they don't then I don't blame them. I just assume that, for reasonable safety reasons, most women don't completely trust men to be objective about sexual assault and harassment. Especially when most rape cases are committed by men who are friends and/or domestic partners with the victims, especially when a lot of outspoken allies are being exposed as creepers. So I don't take offense to it, and I don't find it weird or damning to not be trusted unconditionally by women.
Movie Theater Diary
Sorry, did I step on a toe? You can't prove a negative, but you can observe and intuit. I dunno. Maybe we've had different experiences. (I'm not claiming any particular virtue; I'm blunt and forthright and tend to hang around people who are blunt and forthright.)
Cargill's statement struck me as dim and self-serving, and not dissimilar to others I read over the weekend from prominent voices. Because this shit never happens in a vacuum. It has to be enabled. And everybody always knows, even if they don't admit, even to themselves. So for this dude to come out and be all, "Oh golly gosh gee this is terrible I had no idea" struck me as disingenuous.
Is it even possible to just sneeze once?
I swear I've never done it.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Is it even possible to just sneeze once?
I swear I've never done it.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
I sneeze once most times. My co-worker, without fail, sneezes three times. Every time. Whenever he hits the second one, we turn and stare at him.
Not at all. Look, all right, maybe I'm being overly self-flagellating, but full disclosure in my daily life I socialize with women much more often than men, and yes, they do trust me with nightmare stories about the men they interact with and they let me join in on joking around about them, but I think when you're a man lucky enough to be let into that type of circle it's increasingly easy to sniff your own shit and think of yourself as some kind of woke male ally. So the more I hear and learn, the more I'm inclined to think there's nothing about me worth the benefit of the doubt.
I share your skepticism, but only in regards to what you said about staying ignorant in such a close knit community. However, I don't really doubt that there are certain painful subjects women have to contend with that they don't feel obligated or necessary to share and confide in with a man, for the reasons I stated in my previous post. We're probably not disagreeing much on this.
Nightmare stories? These women have multiple nightmare stories? On a regular basis?
Obviously. How is that shocking. RAINN reports that 1 out of 6 American women have been victims of attempted rape. Bad behavior is even more common.
Quite literally every single female friend I know have either told me or publicly revealed that they've been, at the mildest, sexually harassed. I'm not exaggerating. Every. Single. One.
Every.
Movie Theater Diary
Eugh. I'm not sure I'm the best person to get to say all this. Kinda regret I went down this road in the discussion.
Um. I never sneeze just once. I have heard plenty of people do it, though.
Movie Theater Diary
Don't apologize for a fucking second on bring this up #8. As a parent of two girls, one of which is entering into that age where she sure as shit will be getting targeted for sexual harassment, I can tell you that I am scared as hell about how prevalent this stuff is. My only solace is 1) my girls will have black belts by the time they finish high school, and 2) there are at least some good-hearted biological males willing to wrestle with this shit.
Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it. (Tony, Hibbing)
Sigh: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...&id=1185765424
EDIT: bac0n, not sorry about bringing it up, I just think women are better at articulating my feelings on this than I ever could so I get uncomfortable when I feel like I'm telling their story for my own purposes. I prefer to be like a, I dunno, Bluetooth speaker. Like in this post.
Movie Theater Diary
Fair enough. Thanks.
Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it. (Tony, Hibbing)
Ahhhhhh. This sounds a lot like the shit that went down at Cinefamily in LA.
ETA: Given her post I can understand, in a fucked-up way, why League thought it was fine to re-hire Faraci. It was just that sort of environment/culture.
Last edited by Irish; 09-26-2017 at 07:36 AM.
Weird how decades (centuries) of enshrined, "accepted" and universally understood dominance of one gender over another causes problems when that one gender accustomed to power and control realizes it longer just automatically gets it. It's a poisonous vein running through male mountain and infects way too many. When so many guys talk about wishing things were like they used to be in the "good old days" of the '50s or whatever, when men were the unquestioned heads of the household and controlled everything, what they really mean is just that they don't like or want to be challenged, don't want women as peers and equals, don't want to give up a position only now, just barely, starting to break out of its ossification. You couldn't be accused of much exaggeration in describing how fundamentally imbalanced life has been for men/women for the last several hundred years in most regions and cultures and eras of the world. It defies description and belief.
That got a little macro, but, really, it's our ugly inheritance. It's on us as human beings to overthrow it and make a better world, even if we gotta rip out the plumbing and wiring and sinew of our society to do it.
"How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine-making course and forgot how to drive?"
--Homer
Best things about teaching in order:
1. Talking shit about students and their parents
2. Holidays
3. Making a difference in children's lives.
Good colleagues are the absolute key to enjoying teaching.... at least for me. The start of every year is like Groundhog Day otherwise...
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
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Listening Habits at LastFM
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