Loaded 'Shotgun'

There's a critic bitchslap going on in the blogosphere, and Austinite Jeff Nichols is caught in the crossfire. It kicked off when NY Press film critic Armond White – who's (in)famous for strong opinions, fighting words, and the occasional certifiableness – umbrella'ed Nichols' widely praised but mostly unseen film Shotgun Stories into a larger screed about the state of film criticism today.

White is entirely complimentary of Shotgun Stories (which premiered at last year's Austin Film Festival); in fact, he argues it "should have rocked film culture." He continues:

"Being a non-hipster film meant that Shotgun Stories was off established critics’ radar screens. Even I, shamefacedly, only caught up after it had opened; but it’s been the most resonant American movie so far this year."

Would he kept it at that.

White also, all-claws-out, name-checks Richard Linklater, Gus Van Sant and Judd Apatow (strange bedfellows, no?), "whose celebrations of American sloth have blunted the sensibilities of critics trying to keep up with industry fads." He also takes pot shots at the convalescing Roger Ebert and ticks off Ten Current Film Culture Fallacies ("10. Mumblecore matters.").

I'm all for spirited debate, but that's the problem with White: He doesn't want debate. He wants to strong-arm everybody else into saying he's right, and be downright nasty in the process. And while I admire the intellectual rigor with which he approaches film criticism, I am never, ever, gonna get behind a guy who calls War of the Worlds one of "[t]he most powerful, politically and morally engaged recent films" – nor am I going to sic-dog him for having said opinion.

The blogosphere's been reacting, of course; the most impassioned so far has come from Premiere.com's Glenn Kenny, who took quite personally White's attack on the now-defunct print version of the magazine (White claims the magazine "perverted movie journalism from criticism to production news" and kicked off a sea change in the critical landscape.)

Kenny's signoff: "Oh, and also – my Premiere review of Shotgun Stories ran the day of the picture's New York opening. So bite me."

Jeff Nichols' Shotgun Stories currently has no Austin release date. Click here to read Shawn Badgley's interview with Nichols, which ran in the Chronicle during AFF.