WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL
D: Rob Garver (2018) ¢ ¢ ¢
These are the words I wrote down to describe Pauline Kael while I was watching this documentary about her on TCM: cruel, caustic, controversial, full of herself, a snob. Kael was also, without a doubt, the most influential film critic in America in the last decades of the 20th century. (Her review of "Bonnie and Clyde" in the New Yorker in 1967 helped turn a flop into a landmark.) She comes across like a brilliant little kid who demands attention and evolves into a grownup who knows how to get it. She doesn't mind it when her reviews are admired, but she loves it when they're despised. She picks fights, antagonizes other critics (like Andrew Sarris), and always seems happiest when she's pissing people off. The movie is mostly Kael in her own words, and along with a passion for film, she always had plenty to say. Others who turn up to talk about her include Paul Schrader, John Boorman, Robert Towne, Camille Paglia and Quentin Tarantino. David Lean, Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis and Peter Bogdanovich appear in archive footage.
