Armond White was expelled yesterday from the New York Film Critics Circle at an emergency meeting after last week's dinner remarks.
The entire affair is surreal. Not because of White's remarks or the 36 remaining members having to vote someone off the island, but because it briefly became the most news-worthy event by the Circle since the decision to hold their vote on December 3rd to be the "first" group to announce their favorites.
After his dismissal, which also included the equally bizarre 1-year suspension of the New York Post's Lou Lumenick for revealing the 2013 vote, there was an obvious quote from Armond to The Hollywood Reporter:
“The current New York Film Critics Circle has now revealed to the world its deep-seated ugliness, ingratitude and inferiority. They’re lousy critics and worse human beings. I am relieved of their horrific company.”
If you need further deep analysis of insider baseball, Owen Gleiberman and Sam Adams have that handled. While I can count four people I know beyond Twitter avatars on the Circle, there's a very core concept that White's expulsion represents.
Stop being dicks, or at the very least stop being indulgent of dickish behavior. Aside from not really caring about them, there's a good reason why the Online FIlm Critics Society, Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics, Broadcast Film Critics Association or ANY of them wind up the butt of a throwaway line on the Golden Globes.
The only hope you should have about that is critics do carry on Armond's legacy--just as long as it is the pre-2011 version and not to drop #TRUTHBOMBS. Leave those to the professionals.