State of the Art

The Film Writings #8

by Pauline Kael

Book by Kael, Pauline

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Criticism

404 pages, Hardcover

First published November 27, 1985

About the author

Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. She was known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated, and sharply focused" movie reviews. She approached movies emotionally, with a strongly colloquial writing style. She is often regarded as the most influential American film critic of her day and made a lasting impression on other major critics including Armond White and Roger Ebert, who has said that Kael "had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades."

Reviews

[Jack Herbert Christal Gattanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, I might disagree with about 65% of the opinions Kael espouses here (of the stuff I've seen anyway), yet despite it all she shows here maybe more clearly than ever why she was one of the essential critics of her part of the century. How she builds and reinforces her argument is so potent I want to revisit a number of the films (Right Stuff especially and Silkwood) to reconsider some points I took for granted.

If nothing else, that Scarface review... God damn

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intelligent and frustrating should be Pauline Kael's motto.

[Vincenzo Tagle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very precise and thoughtful in her criticism, even for films that seemingly don’t deserve her time and intelligence.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing my interest in bargain-shelf movie review collections, it was nice to read these late Pauline Kael reviews covering movies from 1982-84, which was truly a dark period in cinema. Kael's writing is as always crisp and thoughtful, but it's probably wasted on some of the dreck she had to review from this era.

[Paul Dinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book from the greatest movie critic ever. I couldn't put it down. She wields her sardonic, bitting, funny prose like a sword against the crappola that Hollywood flings at us. Nothing is safe from arrogant directors, to overbilled stars, and yes crass producers. None are spared her acerbic wit.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Zzzz...I am not that into reading a bunch of reviews of movies from the 80s I have never heard of, it turns out.

[Jonpaul · Rating 4 out of 5]

She was wrong about the Coen brothers.