The New Yorker on Neo-Neo Realism

On the New Yorker movie blog, Richard Brody tears into “Neo-Neo Realism,” A. O. Scott’s piece in the Sunday New York Times Magazine about the new crop of American independent films, saying it "rests on questionable premises and reaches dubious conclusions."

What Scott praises is, in effect, granola cinema, abstemious films that are made to look good for you but are no less sweetened than mass-market products, that cut off a wide range of aesthetic possibilities and experiences on ostensible grounds of virtue. It’s not new; it’s self-consciously, fashionably old-fashioned. Many of these films have a whiff of the sermon about them. “Gran Torino,” in which Clint Eastwood portrays an old bastard who becomes something of a liberal despite—not in the absence of—his worst prejudices and most bilious emotions—is far more politically sophisticated and daring than any of the films Scott names.

About “Neo-Neo Realism”

[#1 posted by Halloween Jack, March 24, 2009 7:14 AM]

I gave up on Scott's article on the first page, at "But what if, at least some of the time, we feel an urge to escape from escapism?" There's this place called the Big Blue Room that he should look into sometime.

[#2 posted by Brainspore, March 24, 2009 7:38 AM]

Please, let's not allow the double prefix "neo-neo-" to take hold. It's even more semantically inane than the term "post-modern" (which has sadly been around too long to kill now).

[#3 posted by propeller, March 24, 2009 7:41 AM]

A.O. Scott is one of the blandest reviewers, when do reviewers get to tell us what kind of films we need? I agree with Brody's take, but let's not forget Anthony Lane is more preposterous as a reviewer than Scott. Lane is an enemy to evolved films.

[#4 posted by abushaw, March 24, 2009 8:58 AM]

That was the most awesomely pretentious thing I've read all month. yikes. I agree with Brainspore, styles should only get one prefix, then they should have to change to something else.

[#5 posted by Rummager, March 24, 2009 12:45 PM]

Y'all are criticizing one critic's criticism of another critic's criticism? How 'Meta' is that?

[#6 posted by Strophe, March 24, 2009 1:13 PM]

Neo-neologism?

[#7 posted by Anonymous, April 14, 2009 6:36 PM]

Can't get past A.O. Scott's first page? What happens when that beautiful lady on the bar stool next to you asks you what you think about the neo-neo realists? Get ready now with neo-neo realism, the FAQs - it's a little shorter and a lot funnier. See http://michaeljamesh.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-treeless-montain-is-different-from.html