The news that Chicago SunTimes music crit Jim DeRogatis "hated, hated, hated" Juno is actually good news. Because if you've read this blog for a while, you know all about my deep, abiding hatred of Jim DeRogatis. The man is actually the *exact opposite* of me in the taste department in every possible regard. Everything I like, he hates. Everything I hate, he likes. Every single fucking time, without fail.
Who is this Jim DeRogatis? Well, he's hysterically appointed himself as a World Class Expert on psychedelic music while actually liking only about five psychedelic records, and considers himself to be the top expert on Lester Bangs whilst himself possessing not a single iota of Bangs' poetic ability. He's edited a loathesome book dedicated to "debunking" the sacred cows of rock (ooh! Risky opinions! "Sgt. Pepper and Pet Sounds both suck!" Wow -- edgy!) and continues to publish a riotous weekly column in the SunTimes that I read as a kind of bellweather of what people in the world don't think.
But even beyond all that, he's been so ludicrously wrong so many times -- I especially loved the hardly-skinny-himself-by-any-criteria critic calling out Brian Wilson for being "fat" before ripping into "Smile" -- that its a wonder people take him seriously anymore, if, in fact, they actually do.
So if he'd liked Juno, I'd have to seriously wonder if there was something wrong with either the movie itself or my own perception of it.
But nope! All is well. Hated. Phew. Sanity resumes, all is well with the world.
(The funniest part of his article, which I'm not even gonna link to but you can read if you like: He knows that nobody really talks like Juno because he talks to the youth of America! Frequently! Yeah, dude, they're really gonna be themselves around a corpulent, badly-dressed critic from the local paper.)
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11 comments:
Yeah, I remember all the Mpls interest and excitement when DeRogatis was going to be involved in Cake, and I could never figure out why anyone cared. Besides that he has close to the opposite taste from me, he doesn't even write engagingly in support of his opinions that I disagree with. It's like this horrible hipster damage that makes certain people seem to lash out at Juno, which I can only interpret as craziness or jealousy because it's a lovely story. I gave a baby up in a direct adoption, and it struck me as amazingly genuine emotionally from both sides. So whatever to haters.
It is especially funny when dudes like him presume to speak to the adoption / teen girl experience, as if they're connected to either. HAR.
He's the only critic that gets my dander up on any kind of regular basis.
I'm more concerned about the fact he hangs out with kids. In what capacity? Does he pay them for their time? Ugh.
DeRogatis licks cows cunt. Piss on him.
Ziggy, I like your forthright style.
Of course I started reading the Juno review because of course I wanted to hear what this guy had to say (because a) I like to hear all sides of a story and b) I don't know who he is). I had to stop after he started listing everyone's (Diabs', Jason's, Ellen's) age. Because young people certainly can't have valid opinions about pop culture or what was truly cool from a certain era because they didn't LIVE through it. Nice credibility, Jimmy.
I kept reading and he says he's an old-school feminist!! No! What does that mean?
It means he likes his strippers WITH pasties.
it means he likes bush. both kinds, probably.
Everything you said is so right on the money. I wish Greg Kot would pair up with someone else for "Sound Opinions" since DeRogatis contributes nothing worthwhile to any conversation. Have you ever heard the "punk" band - Vortis - that he occasionally drums for? Terrible.
I met Jim DeRogatis when I worked at a Borders store in Chicago and he came in for a signing. He mostly came off as a pompous ass.
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