We need to re-focus all our genocide on this woman

[Islandmur]

Poetry is for the birds.

I am not a bird!

Pshsssh you're a dodo! so there!

[Derived Absurdity]

I actually get it from the IMDB comments he's made over the years, not actual reviews. Like his posts on the 2001, Evangelion, and Film General boards. It seems to me that he's highly perceptive and accurate when it comes to a film's emotional authenticity (and conversely when it's lacking); he's able to hone in on what exactly makes certain films emotionally meaningful, and why they're not when they're not (and only pretending to be). More generally he gives emotion in film the critical weight it deserves, unlike other reviewers I used to like who overly focus on plot mechanics, acting, cinematography, and so on while leaving the emotional strength of the narrative on the back burner (which gives me the impression they don't care about it, which gives me the further impression they're missing a critical piece of their humanity which is a requirement for reviewing movies).

He just always seemed like a person who treats emotion seriously and maturely. I can't think of one particularly illustrative example.

Maybe he plagiarizes.

LOL. To be honest he is a bit less rambly and self-absorbed when he's reviewing movies. So... you might be on to something. More seriously I think he's just naturally very good at analyzing movies, so he's more self-confident and so feels less need to ramble.

[Cassius Clay]

The thing about him is that he prioritizes art (which is just a partial expression of humanity...and ís just play/make believe) over real human issues. He would save a classic painting over a human being.

This was quite apparent when I argued with him over Nina Simone. He clearly prioritized filmmaking and was unable to appreciate the real human issues. Another example of this: I just checked out profile and 'Birth of a Nation' is listed as one of his favorite movies. That movie is atrocious, racist propaganda...but I've heard it has "great" story-telling. As long as the film is well made, he'll ignore the racism and rank it as one of his favorites. That's his mentality.

[Derived Absurdity]

That makes a disturbing amount of sense.

I've met a few of those types of people, and they're gross. There's a not-so-fine line between one class of idiot who says "lol, they're just movies, don't take them so seriously" and another who says they're the greatest thing in the world and even more important than real life. I think the former is more of an IQ thing and the latter is more of an EQ thing.

I think it would be fascinating to learn what Eva's EQ is.

[Cassius Clay]

Might be an EQ thing. I dunno. It's definitely a not-being-grounded-in-reality thing. Not sure if that's an EQ problem. But I just saw him arguing with Cine, who pointed out that this was an "intellectual exercise in a vacuum". Which fits the pattern with him. Something I've pointed out before. A lot of intellectual masturbation...no deep understanding. And much like Jr, he obscures this fact with verbosity and overcomplicating the more superficial matters (he's still tacitly playing devil's advocate..caught up on distinctions between abusive and non-abusive camps in a story about a mother drugging and kidnapping her daughter...after it's been pointed out that bootcamps, even in general, have been shown to not be good for kids because they are harsh and don't address underlying issues. I intuitively know that being harsh to kids without really addressing cores issues is a recipe for disaster and pretty much abusive...yet he's still trying to make irrelevant distinctions). And I suspect there's a similar thing going on when he talks about art/film/poetry...at least, when he attempts to apply it to the real world. I will never forget my first main argument with him. He basically derailed a race conversation with tone-policing and saying people should fight back oppression with love like Gandhi and MLK. And he was citing poetry and other literature. I almost punched my screen.

He also seems to have trouble with matters of social accountability.

[Derived Absurdity]

Agreed. I'm done with that thread, I just have zero patience with people like that. You and Cine can take it from here.