Having some free time yesterday, I went looking for a good book to read. Instead of a good book my eye was caught by Aint It Cool: The Harry Knowles Story. I’ve been a reader of Aint It Cool for a long time but I’d never gotten the desire to read his book. A lot of people don’t get it; but I’ve always enjoyed Aint It Cool for it’s enthusiasm and completely unprofessional lack of cynicism even as I was unimpressed by their equally unprofessional editorial standards. It’s a quick read and only about an hour or so I was able to get through a sizable portion of the book. I liked his addendum’s on his favorite / least favorite films as well as his list favorite studio projects that aren’t making any headway.
In particular I recommend the chapter on Matt Drudge, focus groups and especially the preamble by noted filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. In a succinct page and a half Tarantino ably sums up what it is about Knowles that makes us interested in his opinions. It was interesting read and for me at least a nostalgic blast from the past and a reminder of what’s great about Knowles.

That last part should read “what used to be great about Knowles”. I know I’m not breaking the story of the year here but Aint It Cool News has completely lost it’s mojo. I don’t even know why I bother reading it anymore. There’s an ironic part of the book where he’s criticizing Matt Drudge and it’s a pretty blatant case of Harry fretting about the mote someone’s eye while ignoring the plank in his own. The warning signs have always been there but Harry’s degenerated into a total studio shill, a guy whose first mission is to do damage control for the studios. There’s no film too rancid that Harry can’t pad out an apology for under the guise of a “review”.
And it’s not just Harry either. Drew “Moriarty” McWeeny is a good writer but he’s symptomatic of the site wide loss of credibility. I remember when Showtime announced they’re absolutely bullshit dumping of Takashi Miike’s much anticipated entry on Masters of Horror, anthology because it was “too disturbing”. Chud.com got it right with their mix of humor and indignation. Aint It Cool on the other hand got McWeeny; who was employed by the series; to pen this completely pandering apology. It was McWeeny scolding the fans for not considering the business aspect.
Want a precise moment in time where AICN allegiance shifted from the film geek to the studio? It’s these two sentences:

“Showtime saw the episode, they freaked out, and they decided not to show it. Considering it’s Miike, that shouldn’t really surprise anyone.”

It was an almost cartoonish moment of hypocrisy for a site that once considered itself a guerrilla resistance to the corporate entertainment media.

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