and being quite good at it; she gives the only watchable performance
this
― Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:42 (eleven years ago) link
Bening's the only one who treats the material like Carol Burnett material.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:43 (eleven years ago) link
this is all kind of an insult to the carol burnett show
― idiot man-child (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:44 (eleven years ago) link
Oh man, I just remembered how ham-fisted the portrayal of Allison Janney's character was.
― Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:44 (eleven years ago) link
peter gallagher's eyebrows are the real star
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:44 (eleven years ago) link
I did have lots of fun at the time pissing off the film's fans by claiming The Ref as the better Kevin Spacey suburban malaise comedy.
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:44 (eleven years ago) link
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Monday, November 12, 2012
but of what gallagher vehicle can this not be said
― idiot man-child (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:45 (eleven years ago) link
I. WILL. CLOSE.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:46 (eleven years ago) link
i'm pretty sure i've never actually seen this p.o.s. in full
― idiot man-child (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:46 (eleven years ago) link
i don't remember Janney OR Gallagher in this film, alas I do Spacey
so glad I linked the E Stein remembrance
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:46 (eleven years ago) link
scottie baks was nice in basically a walk-on role
― sug ones (omar little), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:47 (eleven years ago) link
When Lester is caught masturbating by Carolyn, his angry retort about their lack of intimacy is the first time he says aloud what he thinks about her.[15] By confronting the issue and Carolyn's "superficial investments in others", Lester is trying to "regain a voice in a home that [only respects] the voices of mother and daughter".[14] His final turning point comes when he and Angela almost have sex;[16] after she confesses her virginity, he no longer thinks of her as a sex object, but as a daughter.[17] He holds her close and "wraps her up". Mendes called it "the most satisfying end to [Lester's] journey there could possibly have been". With these final scenes, Mendes intended to show Lester at the conclusion of a "mythical quest". After Lester gets a beer from the refrigerator, the camera pushes toward him, then stops facing a hallway down which he walks "to meet his fate".[16][18] Having begun to act his age again, Lester achieves closure.[17] As he smiles at a family photo, the camera pans slowly from Lester to the kitchen wall, onto which blood spatters as a gunshot rings out; the slow pan reflects the peace of Lester's death.[19] His body is discovered by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky's staring into Lester's dead eyes is "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is found where it is least expected.[20]
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:47 (eleven years ago) link
Professor Roy M. Anker argues that the film's thematic center is its direction to the audience to "look closer"
GOD I hate Film Studies departments
nev mind, that was the other thread
xxp
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:47 (eleven years ago) link
by the time this came out the drudge sirens were going off whenever my film school cronies were breathlessly recommending the latest life-changing entry in the american film renaissance of the late 90s
― idiot man-child (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:48 (eleven years ago) link
i always thought that shot of ricky looking at dead lester was basically a patient zero moment for his future as a serial killer
― sug ones (omar little), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:48 (eleven years ago) link
I don't remember Janney in this either, actually, but surely she can't be worse here than when she's telling off the nurse in Juno, most assuredly the worst scene she (or anyone else on screen at the time) has ever acted in.
Gallagher I only remember here because of the "Bus-ted!" scene.
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:49 (eleven years ago) link
the PK quote
"I didn't dislike American Beauty -- I hated it. It's not that it's badly made -- it isn't. It has snappy rhythms and Kevin Spacey's line readings are very smart, and Annette Bening is skillful in the scene where she beats up on herself. But the picture is a con. It buries us under the same load of attitudes that were tried out in Carnal Knowledge and The Ice Storm, with the nice trustworthy young dope-dealers of Easy Rider. Maybe audiences are so familiar with this set of anti-suburbia attitudes that it's developed into its own movie genre."
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:49 (eleven years ago) link
Bening throwing herself on her closetful of clothes in a paroxysm of grief is the most embarrassing scene she's ever played
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:49 (eleven years ago) link
Carnal Knowledge >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> American Beauty
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:50 (eleven years ago) link
One of only two movies I saw twice in a 12-hour period. I hated it when I watched it in the morning, then my best friend and his girlfriend "conned" me into a second viewing.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:51 (eleven years ago) link
AB, or CK?
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:51 (eleven years ago) link
i hated american beauty as well. cable dramas kinda took the pandering liberal fantasy world thing to new levels though. weeds, mad men, breaking bad, etc. even though i like those shows. liberals need violent wish-fulfillment too.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:52 (eleven years ago) link
hence, V For Vendetta
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 00:52 (eleven years ago) link
That whole thing was really just Oscar season '99, right?
― Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 01:11 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/165416-the-critic-as-artful-gadfly-pauline-kael/
― Room 227 (cryptosicko), Thursday, 15 November 2012 15:43 (eleven years ago) link
another myth semi-punctured
http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/actually-pauline-kael-did-sometimes-watch-movies-more-than-once
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 21:10 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I was pretty sure that one was BS from the get-go.
― Bobby Ken Doll (Eric H.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
She said repeatedly in her reviews that such-and-such movie from the thirties played much better when she "last" saw it on TV.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 22:43 (eleven years ago) link
Actually don't remember that--can you think off an example offhand?
I can't take all this myth dismantling. Secret Last Year at Marienbad lover, lifelong obsession with split infinitives, Hampton vacations with Andy and Molly, who knows what awaits.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:04 (eleven years ago) link
The Hect-MacCarthur comedies, All About Eve, and other films whose worth is mostly literary.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:09 (eleven years ago) link
*Hecht
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:10 (eleven years ago) link
A clueless reviewer quoted Kael's annoyance at the repetition in Hiroshima Mon Amour ("we get it already") to mirror his feeling at the apparent repetitions (not textual so much as visual) found in Haneke's Amour.
Got to read this woman..
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:16 (eleven years ago) link
I mean it must be laugh a page. I think I'm ready.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:17 (eleven years ago) link
Hitchcock fans will fondly recall Kael’s dismissal of the Master’s 1958 thriller Vertigo, now widely considered the crowning achievement of his illustrious career and, oh yeah, the Greatest Film Ever Made, according to the 2012 Sight and Sound poll. She deemed the movie “stupid,” though she did love Kim Novak, who was “touching in the dreamy-floozy Marilyn Monroe-like role.”
i have never read this before! honestly kind of surprising to me.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:35 (eleven years ago) link
not me
― saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:37 (eleven years ago) link
Nor I
― Listicle Vogue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:45 (eleven years ago) link
Also: PK in Furtive Fassbinder Fanatic Shocka!
i know she wasn't keen on 'the birds' or the other later stuff but the depth of her de palma love makes it a bit bewildering to me that she didn't have any time for '50s hitch. did she hate 'rear window' too?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:46 (eleven years ago) link
That I'm aware of she never wrote a line about Rear Window, although it's as easy to imagine her liking it as it is to imagine her loathing Vertigo.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:50 (eleven years ago) link
I'm having a hard time figuring out where I read her on Vertigo--I just checked I Lost it at the Movies, 5001 Nights, Conversations with PK, and Afterglow, and it's nowhere. But I have. I know she didn't care for it, but I don't remember the word "stupid."
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:51 (eleven years ago) link
Kael's the Nixon of ILX--she cannot be killed.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 23:54 (eleven years ago) link
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, November 20, 2012 6:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
you never read it before because its misattributed - she was talking about Kiss Me, Stupid, not Vertigo
― turds (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 05:21 (eleven years ago) link
"...he used to be the master entertainer of the screen, because he could tease us so cleverly; we enjoyed being willfully manipulated to be tense and afraid and expectant...The plots were usually fantastic, and the "MacGuffin" was a mere pretext for the chases and excitations and thrills. He gave excitement to the world."
That's from her negative review of "Topaz". One can probably surmise (sorry, "we" can surmise) from that that "Rear Window" was one she liked.
― Faster than food (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 21 November 2012 07:06 (eleven years ago) link
Doing a Google search to see if she'd ever written anything about Gorky Park, I came across this:
http://www.listal.com/list/kael
Nothing you didn't already know (with the possible exception of the first film listed), but funny-obsessive nonetheless.
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 February 2013 20:50 (eleven years ago) link
I'm waiting for someone to put her Cavett interviews on Youtube. The stock of Googleable Kael footage hasn't changed in years.
― jim, Sunday, 3 February 2013 20:55 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I'd love to see that stuff. All you can get is Jerry Lewis on Cavett saying how good Kael and Rex Reed (!) are, and blasting what seems to be Judith Crist, and using the word "totality".
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 February 2013 20:59 (eleven years ago) link
Did Kael ever write anything about My Bloody Valentine?
― clemenza, Sunday, 3 February 2013 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
The movie or the band?
(in either case, I'm guessing no)
― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Monday, 4 February 2013 03:30 (eleven years ago) link
Kael was more a C86 lady than a Shoegazer.
― Big Sambola & The Tailspinners (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 4 February 2013 06:47 (eleven years ago) link