# Unaccountably Acclaimed (by Critics, mostly)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 23, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691 "2007-08-23T21:28:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/41 "2007-08-25T06:21:59Z")
_Curb Your Enthusiasm_. It all just seemed so push-button, with Larry reacting the same way in every situation and everybody else reacting the same way week after week to him.
The only laugh I ever got out of that show was when the woman called her husband “that fat fuck.”
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/42 "2007-08-25T06:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=Potato Pancakes]
Cormac McCarthy. I thought _The Road_ was at best mediocre. For a story in the post-apocalyptic genre, there are a million others that are better. The reason I don’t enjoy it, apparently, is that I failed to know before I read it how much of a Big Deal McCarthy is in the history of Great American Writers.
His writing has little regard for punctuation, and he elects to not use quotes for dialog. Throw in some garbage metaphors and some 10 dollar words and you have his latest novel.
[/QUOTE]
Same here.
> [@](#):
>
> I do not understand the fawning adulation for “Napoleon Dynamite.” I can’t think of anything more dull. Slow and unfunny with a thoroughly unappealing lead character.
That too.
Though I think \*Gattaca \* has its moments.
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### Author:  [@some\_white\_dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/some_white_dude)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/43 "2007-08-25T07:24:38Z")
Metacritic lists three Wolf Eyes albums with overall favorable reviews. I tried them, not realizing they were a noise outfit. That was a surprise. How can you critically evaluate a bunch of noise? “I give that thunder four stars!” “That airplane that just flew overhead was totally lame…3.7.”
I was checking them out because they were opening for Girl Talk. I don’t think any two artists could be more dissimilar.
ETA: While I’m on Girl Talk, that show was fun as all get out. However, I can’t stand listening to his album for more than a couple minutes before getting annoyed. He can really work a crowd, but I don’t wanna hear a mash-up of a bunch of obnoxious songs when I’m putzing around on my computer at home.
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### Author:  [@AmalgramFour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmalgramFour)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/44 "2007-08-25T13:42:02Z")
[QUOTE=Dunawake]
**The White Stripes**
[/QUOTE]
A while back that would have been one of my nominations, thought they had a few decent songs but nothing that special. I’ve now done a complete 180 on them, after hearing more of their back catalog and live recordings.
Have to disagree with all the votes for Radiohead, they’ve released a stong collection of diverse albums and are particularly good live. Can understand their whiny-ness putting people off though (I liked the review which described a track on their last album as a “whinge too far”). They are always going to divide opinion.
My nominations:
**Pulp Fiction.** Had it’s moments, but a triumph of style over substance. To be fair, it’s title describes it perfectly.
**Bob Dylan.** Always thought he was a much better lyricist than musician or singer (although he does have a distinctive voice).
**The Rolling Stones.** Some good songs, but nothing special.
**The Lord of the Rings (film).** Ridiculously cartoonish action scenes.
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### Author:  [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/45 "2007-08-25T21:07:45Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool]
Is it? I’ve always interpreted it more as “they were fooling themselves”. The point is not that people will lie when they don’t want to offend someone powerful. It’s that some truths are glaringly obvious once pointed out, but people have an incredible ability to deceive themselves, particularly when going along with a crowd.
[/QUOTE]
[According to the story,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor's_New_Clothes) everyone was afraid to tell the emperor the truth, which they all recognized, that he was naked. It’s a parable about how no one will speak truth to power, a form of groupthink that happens all the time on small and large scales. IOW, exactly the opposite of what you thought it meant, and what **lissener** said.
Several people here have praised _The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada_. I think **lissener** said it was one of the top 10 movies of the decade. I despised it. But I tend not to like that director’s work at all. I hated _Babel_ and \*21 Grams \* also-- convoluted character torture doesn’t do it for me. The critics love Arriaga, though, and he’s gotten lots of nominations.
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/46 "2007-08-25T21:12:23Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
[Alien](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman/alien.htm)
[/QUOTE]
So, once again: Are you ever going to respond to the criticism of this stuff?
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/47 "2007-08-25T21:39:56Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
I never understood the critical acclaim for Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Three Colors” trilogy.
The first, **Blue** , had a character so filled with depression after her family’s death that she couldn’t make any human contact, and then, with a cliched meeting, suddenly was completely well again.
**White** was the best of the three, since it told a story, but the final motivation of the characters (especiall the wife) is nonsensical.
**Red** , supposedly the best, was completely forgettable.
[/QUOTE]
The stories of Kieslowski films are all about political allegory and social commentary; they’re not light entertainments, certainly not plot heavy, and if you don’t understand or don’t care about what he’s referring to, then they aren’t going to mean a lot to you, although the lush cinematography and the long, quiet takes where he allows his actors to just exist make his films worth watching even if the stories are nonsensical or go nowhere (as in _La Double vie de Véronique_). Besides, I could sit and watch Juliette Binoche or Irène Jacob do nothing at all, and Jean-Louis Trintignant is one of the forgotten great actors of European cinema.
[QUOTE=John DiFool]
Tarantino. Don’t get the love for most of his stuff, esp. the **Kill Bill** films, which are by turns disjointed, charmless, and preposterous.
[/QUOTE]
With possible exception of _Reservoir Dogs_, which was also pastiche but at least it was fresh, raw pastiche, I totally agree. Tarantino is a film nerd granted a ludicrous budget and a professional film crew, and is even more full of himself than Kevin Smith. _Pulp Fiction_ started an abhominable trend of imitators that we could do without.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/48 "2007-08-25T22:34:41Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak]
Several people here have praised _The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada_. I think **lissener** said it was one of the top 10 movies of the decade. I despised it. But I tend not to like that director’s work at all. . . .
[/QUOTE]
FWIW, \*Melquiades \*was directed by Tommy Lee Jones.
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### Author:  [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/49 "2007-08-25T23:04:52Z")
[QUOTE=lissener]
FWIW, \*Melquiades \*was directed by Tommy Lee Jones.
[/QUOTE]
You’re right, of course. Arriaga wrote it. Doesn’t change my opinion of it at all.
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/50 "2007-08-25T23:20:30Z")
Eminem - his lyrics deserve all the praise they get, at least the Eminem that I listened to (Slim Shady LP and earlier.) I mean,
\*“I don’t have that bad of a mouth, do I?/Fuck, shit, ass, bitch, cunt, shoo-ba-dee-doo-wop!/ Skippity be-bop, a-Christopher Reeve, Sonny Bono, skis, horses and hittin’ some trees!”
\*
The guy, while puerile, is an absolute wizard for creative wordplay.
Donny Darko - I didn’t understand the plot, and didn’t try to. But there’s so much more to a movie than the plot - I mean, I’m a David Lynch fan (has anyone mentioned him yet in this thread?) I don’t think the plot always has to make sense for a movie to be good. Donny Darko has a lot of scenes that are just compelling and unique. The scene of the kids at school in slow motion with _Head Over Heels._ Patrick Swayze’s hilarious character and his satirical self-help program. The movie’s characters and setting and atmosphere are what makes that movie, not really the plot.
Modest Mouse - they are “bipolar”, I suppose. But they bring a very raw, gritty, earthy energy to their music that few other contemporary bands do. I thought their newer stuff (Dashboard) was mediocre and overproduced, but I dig everything else for its alternation of subtle, folky instrumentals and melodies with primal, wild vocals. Float On got too much radio play, though!
I never liked Radiohead much, on the other hand, because Thom Yorke’s voice turns me off big-time and they seem to overuse crashing, suspended/minor chords and operatic, moaning vocals. I appreciate their musicianship, but I do think they’re overrated.
I agree with the Killers. No, rock and roll isn’t dead and decomposing, but the Killers are mediocre and should not be seen as a good representative of current rock.
I haven’t heard a whole lot of Rufus Wainwright, and what I’ve heard, I’ve not minded, but this:
> [@](#):
>
> On top of this stinking sound, the guy puts out this appalling ‘my struggle as an artist in New York bohemia’ bullshit. Yeah Rufus, it must have been tough wrestling with your sexuality and doing coke with East coast trustafarians whilst your Dad was passing your demo tape round the Geffen board room. Get tae fuck son, your vocal chords are a disgrace to humanity.
is hilarious!
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### Author:  [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/51 "2007-08-25T23:22:41Z")
Pardon me while I slip into this raincoat and curl up in a fetal position.
_ **The Wire** _.
I just. Don’t. F\*&$ing. Get it.
I’ve give it three chances now, because enough people whose opinions I (relatively) respect praise it. I do not see what they see. Anecdote blah blah blah data…I have never met in real life a person who likes this show, and there’s a group of fellow teachers who like nothing more than to discuss Sunday night’s HBO and Showtime in the workroom on Monday morning, creating a cult of creative ways to call each other “cocksuckers” without students knowing (my favorite was to paste a picture of a rooster and a lollipop on one teacher’s lecturn before he got to class one day) after a new episode of **Deadwood** , or to wish that \*\*Entourage \*\* was an hour long, or to collectively say after the first episode of **John From Cincinatti** , “screw that,” or to giggle with giddy anticipation of Peter O’Toole in **The Tudors** …not one of us can stand **The Wire**.
I fully understand that many people think it the greatest show on television. I respectfully disagree (respectfully, 'cause if I say what I’m really thinking **lissener** will smack my nose!)
Commence throwing of rotten vegetables.
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### Author:  [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/52 "2007-08-25T23:49:07Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach]
Pardon me while I slip into this raincoat and curl up in a fetal position.
_ **The Wire** _.
I just. Don’t. F\*&$ing. Get it.
[/QUOTE]
That’s it, I’m writing you out of my will. Some things are just not acceptable.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/53 "2007-08-26T00:15:41Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach]
…not one of us can stand **The Wire**.
I fully understand that many people think it the greatest show on television. I respectfully disagree (respectfully, 'cause if I say what I’m really thinking **lissener** will smack my nose!)
Commence throwing of rotten vegetables.
[/QUOTE]
I didn’t like The Wire either. (But in the interest of bud nippage, it would be helpful if you noted that nowhere have I “smacked” anyone for disagreeing with anyone else’s taste; I only pointed out that _one metaphor_ is implicitly insulting. Again, not about disagreeing, but about insulting. . . I now return you to your regular thread.)
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/54 "2007-08-26T01:51:00Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak]
You’re right, of course. Arriaga wrote it. Doesn’t change my opinion of it at all.
[/QUOTE]
Well, to be fair, a director has a great deal of influence over how a script comes out. That, and it doesn’t treat the same themes that Iñárritu has been stuck on for his last three movies. \*Melquiades \*is worlds better than \*Babel \*and _21G_. In many ways–many many \*many \*ways–it’s has more in common with John Ford’s greatest Westerns than with Iñárritu’s movies.
From someone who hates \*Babel \*and could care less about _21G_, I recommend you give it a whirl,.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/55 "2007-08-26T04:27:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*Lissener \*\*: However, the point of the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is that the people who pretended to like his clothes were lying, because they were afraid to appear to be fools.
>
> MaxTheVool : Is it? I’ve always interpreted it more as “they were fooling themselves”. The point is not that people will lie when they don’t want to offend someone powerful. It’s that some truths are glaringly obvious once pointed out, but people have an incredible ability to deceive themselves, particularly when going along with a crowd.
> \*\*Rubystreak \*\*: According to the story, everyone was afraid to tell the emperor the truth, which they all recognized, that he was naked.
Nobody could see the clothes, but they all claimed to see them, “not wanting to appear a fool” It wasn’t because they were kidding themselves. It wasn’t because they were afraid of insulting the king. It was only because they were afraid of looking like a fool to other people.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ZYzbkk5X4M?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque
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### Author:  [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/56 "2007-08-26T04:43:23Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris]
Nobody could see the clothes, but they all claimed to see them, “not wanting to appear a fool” It wasn’t because they were kidding themselves. It wasn’t because they were afraid of insulting the king. It was only because they were afraid of looking like a fool to other people.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ZYzbkk5X4M?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I said it was groupthink. No one wanted to be the one person who pointed out to the emperor that he was naked. Everyone else is cheering for his new outfit, I will too! Is how I interpreted it.
**lissener** , you didn’t like \*The Wire \* (second best show on TV ever, after _Deadwood_), but you loved _The Three Burials_… nope, I don’t think we like the same stuff (though I did agree with you about _Six Feet Under_).
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/57 "2007-08-26T05:02:00Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak]
Yeah, I said it was groupthink. No one wanted to be the one person who pointed out to the emperor that he was naked. Everyone else is cheering for his new outfit, I will too! Is how I interpreted it.
**lissener** , you didn’t like \*The Wire \* (second best show on TV ever, after _Deadwood_), but you loved _The Three Burials_… nope, I don’t think we like the same stuff (though I did agree with you about _Six Feet Under_).
[/QUOTE]
I watched about half of the first season of The Wire, and it just didn’t hold together. And the lead dude’s Irish accent kept creaking through, which annoyed me.
And accusations of “groupthink” is an accusation of dishonesty. Especially in this instance because the Emperor’s subjects \*lied \*about what they saw. Call what made them do so groupthink or whatever, the point is still that they lied. So I, personally, stay away from the whole Emperor thing unless I specifically mean to call someone a liar.
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### Author:  [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)
#### Post date: [August 26, 2007, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/58 "2007-08-26T05:50:29Z")
[QUOTE=lissener]
I didn’t like The Wire either. (But in the interest of bud nippage, it would be helpful if you noted that nowhere have I “smacked” anyone for disagreeing with anyone else’s taste; I only pointed out that _one metaphor_ is implicitly insulting. Again, not about disagreeing, but about insulting. . . I now return you to your regular thread.)
[/QUOTE]
I know; just funnin’ you. Besides, your correct assessment of \*\*The Wire \*\* shows your superior taste!
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### Author:  [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/59 "2007-08-27T15:50:03Z")
_About Schmidt_ comes to mind. Boring and pointless… I just didn’t get why the movie was made at all.
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unaccountably-acclaimed-by-critics-mostly/416691/60 "2007-08-27T16:28:04Z")
These threads.
Does the person who posts, “I don’t get the love for Radiohead” think he’s going to get a prize for being the one-millionth unoriginal fuck who writes that?
All the complaints in these threads are so shallowly thought out and general that they can’t be construed as anything other than veiled insults at the people who like those things. Wait for a thread to come around on the object of your scorn sometime and enter into a real discourse on it.
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