This Year's 'Sideways'! Way Better than 'March of the Penguins'!

Joe Queenan's declaration that 2010 is the worst year ever for movies is taking a lot of heat.

In response to his assertion that we don't have an indie gem that's a critical sweetheart this year:

2010 doesn't have one of these movies. "The Kids Are All Right," arguably the most heartwarming lesbian romantic comedy ever, is trying to fill that slot, but whatever its merits, it's no "Sideways," no "March of the Penguins."

Tom Shone replies:

This is undeniable. The Kids Are Alright is no March of the Penguins. Or Sideways. The last time I looked, it was no Snow White, The Wild Bunch or Full Metal Jacket, either.

(You know, I do seem to remember an ad somewhere for 'The Kids Are All Right' saying it was, in fact, this year's 'Sideways', and (believe or not) way better than 'March of the Penguins').

But, seriously...

Patrick Goldstein comes back with:

Of course, when "Sideways" came out, I bet there were plenty of cranky critics like Queenan who said that whatever its merits, "Sideways" is no "Shakespeare in Love" or "Fargo."

I like to make fun of poor writing. It makes the world a better place and makes me feel good. But, the web is overflowing with piss-poor prose. Words are slammed together without regard for whether they make sense or should inhabit the same sentence. Opinions are posted while still half-baked and mushy in the middle, and without much thought for their underlying logic or soundness.

This happens across the web all day, every day. Such commentary comes from keyboard pounding hacks who run blogs that strive only to attain new heights of superficiality and sarcasm, as well as respected publications that are long-standing bastions of literary endeavor (I'll name no names). It's an endlessly recurring garage sale of poorly fabricated write-ups posted online which assail your sense of literary cohesion and numb your appreciation for cogent expression. A nickel for this bag of self-aggrandizing jangly compositions -- a dime for that box of shoddily constructed observations. Don't want to pay? There's tons for free. Gobs. Loads. Grab a shovel and open wide.

If one were to give all the lazy writers a thrashing for, to paraphrase Shone, filling all that space on the web with all that thoughtless dreck, well, you'd be at it all day. All night. All day. So, I took a pass on doing a slash and burn on the Queenan piece, tempting though it may have been. Thankfully, there are others willing and very able to step up.

Nice at-bat, Tom and Patrick, and the others who saw fit to take another poor writer to task. The world is (ever so slightly) a better place.