“A critic is a legless man who teaches running.” – Channing Pollock
Reviewing anything online is tricky. You want to make sure that your readers know that the opinions expressed in your review are yours, yours alone, they are not bought or purchased or influenced by any outside source.
And right now, that’s the situation that one of my favorite movie / TV websites, Ain’t It Cool News, is going through.
And it’s not pretty.
AICN has several reviewers who see the upcoming motion pictures and write big, long, detailed reviews of the films. Then the AICN fans get to comment on the reviews in the “talkback” section. The site has grown to arguably one of the largest and most read independent movie review online platforms. People flock to read what Harry Knowles, Nordling, Capone, Quint, Mr. Beaks, Hercules the Strong and Billy the Kidd think of the upcoming summer blockbusters and hit TV shows. Yeah, yeah, I know these are mostly nom de plumes for the reviewers’ real names, but I don’t really care about that right now.
Well, that list was reduced by one employee a couple of weeks ago.
Billy the Kidd (nee Billy Donnelly) reviewed movies for AICN, and his schtick was to pretty much tear apart most films that he reviewed. And that didn’t sit well with the owner of AICN, Harry Knowles. And, after one too many scathing reviews – apparently Billy the Kidd was not a fan of the movie 42, he was fired from his reviewing duties on April 22, 2013. As he listed it, he was fired via Facebook.
If that’s true, then … man oh man.
Right after that, the AICN fans and readers turned on the site like Pavlov’s dogs after they heard the dinner bell. They accused AICN of putting out super-glowing reviews of films like Iron Man 3 in exchange for the reviewers receiving gifts and swag bags from Marvel / Disney. They accused Harry Knowles of squelching any reviewer whose reviews might compromise advertising revenue.
Harry later addressed this issue on the AICN page, stating thus:
Billy The Kid was let go due to me, Quint and a whole lot of reader feedback that just felt that Billy didn’t gel with AICN. I received many complaints from Miami area AICNers that constantly reported discontent with the job he was doing in that area. I also felt that Billy didn’t understand the basic covenant that AICN has – which is that we love films. I wanted to let him go back in January, but was talked into letting him have a shot by some on staff. But I found I didn’t like much of Billy’s work. I discussed all of this with him in a very long phone conversation where I told him in no uncertain terms that I can’t imagine any scenario by which he would continue at AICN. I felt his cynicism in his writing was a plague on my site – belonging less here – than on sites that relish in bitching. We had many reports that Billy would Ban people for simply disagreeing with him – and then he’d deny it. I wish Billy the best of luck wherever he ends up setting up, but I and the staff at AICN felt he no longer belonged.
You know what? I’ve learned something over the years. There’s three different truths to any argument. The first person’s truth, the second person’s truth, and the truth in the middle that really tells the story. Pardon me if I go Rashomon for a moment…
There are people who loved Billy the Kidd’s reviews, and there are people who hated the reviews. There are people who love reading AICN, and there are people who think that AICN has lost its way and is now attached to of the Hollywood promotion machine.
Here’s the thing. Whether Billy the Kidd was fired or he quit, whether the breakup was acrimonious or mutual, this has become an ugly public relations nightmare. And whether they like to admit it or not, AICN’s reviews now have the perception of being less about independent film review, and more about being just another adjunct of Hollywood’s public relations advertising.
And whatever Billy the Kidd says about working for AICN, he has to remember. This is Harry Knowles’ website, not Billy the Kidd’s website. Harry Knowles is the boss and Harry Knowles can hire or fire whomever he wants, for whatever reason.
But this is the unfortunate side effect, this is the perception factor. Operating a site like AICN takes lots of money. The site has thousands of visitors every hour, it probably eats up more bandwidth than Pac-Man with a pocketful of quarters. There are Hollywood studios that buy advertising on AICN, but for the most part people still came to the website for the movie and TV show reviews, and the interviews with Hollywood directors, actors and producers. How do we know that those movie studio banners on the site are or aren’t tied to positive movie reviews? Heck, fans are screaming bloody murder that AICN gave five-star reviews to Iron Man 3, especially after they saw what the movie did to the character of supervillain The Mandarin.
And, according to this news report from the Miami New Times “Cultist” blogs, Billy the Kidd has landed on his feet, and is now working for the website thisisinfamous.com.
Now I haven’t seen the film yet, so I have no idea whether the fans’ review or AICN’s review is more accurate. And I don’t know if the fans’ review of the film is also flavored with the firing of Billy the Kidd from the AICN site. I just don’t know.
Still, like most tempests in an Internet teacup, this will pass, and AICN can get back to being a movie review site that people can go to and enjoy and appreciate. And maybe, just maybe, Billy the Kidd will find a new website for his movie reviews, or perhaps he’ll hang out a shingle and create his own website.
Until then, all we have is a snipe war of passive-aggressive statements, veiled comments, and the like. And both fans and detractors of AICN, as well as fans and detractors of Billy the Kidd, are going through those messages and looking for any clues as to what really happened.
In that, we may never truly know. And maybe we don’t need to know. And maybe that is the third truth in the argument.
UPDATE: On May 7, 2013, I received this personal e-mail from Billy Donnelly, aka Billy the Kidd. After getting his permission to repost the comments in this blog, here is what he sent to me.
In regards to your story about recent happenings at Ain’t It Cool News, I’d just like to point out that there was never any sort of gimmick or schtick behind any of my reviews nor will there ever be. There has never been any intention or approach that would lead me to tear down any sort of movie for giggles. All I have ever done is offered up my own honest opinion on a film, what I thought its strengths/weaknesses were, how it played to me, whether I thought it was good, bad or somewhere in the middle, and whether or not I would recommend someone seeing it. Unfortunately, in this current climate of the industry, more often than not, it’s subpar movies that fill up the release calendar, so it’s not surprising that one might have more negative reviews than positive, but this isn’t about keeping a scorecard. This is about telling it like it is, based on my own thoughts, to the readership, who is ultimately who we are supposed to serve.
Chuck The Writer 
The only thing less interesting than movie reviews is reviewing the critics.
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Research isn’t you middle name, is it?
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What the article doesn’t mention is that Billy the Kidd was a terrible writer and a sophomoric reviewing talent. AICN finally recognized this and is much stronger for it.
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The 3rd truth is easy to see as Billy the Kidd continues to say nothing bad about AICN while they continue to bash him and keep changing their stories or putting out excuses that sound both implausible and ridiculous.
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Billy was not a terrible writer at all. One thing about AICN that has also changed is the talbacks. You have to sift through nothing but venom and trolling to get to discussions that have anything to do with the subject matter that is being brought to the readership. This is something that has existed long before The Kidd’s firing (via facebook).
Harry has been on a witch hunt deleting comments of others who supported Billy and even banning them from the talkbacks.
We may never know what happened exactly but Billy continues to maintain the high road while Harry, and more recently Capone, have taken nothing but cheap shots at Billy.
Even with all that advertising revenue it can’t buy Harry an ounce of class.
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If being a terrible writer was grounds for termination from AICN, then Harry Knowles would be unemployed.
“MEESA LOVED HIM!”
— Harry Knowles, on Jar Jar Binks, 1999
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/3624
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I have read Billys reviews and admit, he is a tough critic. He is also a very talented writer and personality. Ironman 3 was a huge letdown and it wasnt just the use of the Mandarin. Every single person I have talked to agreed and most dont know who Billy is. For Harry to say its the best Ironman yet clearly indicates that all is not well at AICN.
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There’s another story here, if you care to look. Billy’s firing makes it worth taking a look at who has NOT been fired, and what is not only tolerated at AICN, but endorsed and even practiced by Harry and his staff: blatant racism, sexism, hate speech and open pedophilia. If that sounds implausible, all you need to do is read the TalkBack section on any given minute of any day to see it there, front and center. Since staff writers are given ban authority (called, snarkily, the “ban hammer”) they are then responsible for policing the site… and their elected priorities are shockingly out of step with civilized society. Long-time hate speech “Talkbackers” thrive for years, insulting Blacks and every possible race, while those who question the site’s editorial policy are routinely banned within mere minutes. Drew McWeeny was once the worst offender, although he has since been replaced by “Nordling,” who tolerates all sorts of sexist and racist hate speech, but bans anyone who challenges his writing style in even the most tepid manner. Quint, Hercules and the rest will even post sarcastic smirks after the most horrific threats against women, rather than police them. McWeeny was notorious for his homophobic rants against critics, who he would attempt to insult by calling them “gay.” Sexism and gay jokes pervade Harry’s own reviews, frequently comparing things he likes with female body parts (most famously saying Speed Racer was like “chocolate covered juice”). Women fare the worst in Talkbacks, with Blacks and Asians falling in close second, and yet Harry is never held accountable, and the normally pro-tolerance Hollywood throws its ad dollars at the site with abandon. Harry’s habit of trading good reviews for “pwesents” is well documented, going back as far as the late 1990’s Film Threat series of articles (“Deconstrucing Harry”) so it comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with the site, and honestly should not have surprised Billy Donnelly. What needs mainstream media coverage next is the horrific sexism, racism and violence that is promoted and supported by Harry Knowles, Roland De Nois and the rest of the AICN staff on a nearly daily basis.
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