Pauline Kael

I'll venture to say that Kael was a great writer but a lousy watcher.

wait, except dissent in an ancient print mag. never mind about the online part. maybe, good editing in general.

Kenny's 'response' to that Taylor article (amongst others)

(xp)
Didn't somebody already mention that upthread? Or maybe it was linked to by a blog that was linked to upthread.

I liked the quote from Kent Jones on Kenny's page.

It was folded into that Emerson essay I linked to above. The Kael revival has neatly fed into the larger film criticism memes of the year, it seems.

That Jones piece in Film Comment was really good.

did they? sorry. i just saw it today. i couldn't really read the whole thing.

x-post

the dissent thing is instructional for me because i make notes in my head and say: okay, don't ever do that. don't ever write something like this. don't say that. etc. etc.

I liked Taylor during his late nineties Salon tenure, but his Paulette tendencies were even then rather creepy. Like most mimickers he made me appreciate how singular the original was.

I like the word "mimicker." I want to use it, but don't want to get called out on my mimickeristic ways.

would Kael have liked The New World? maybe Colin Farrell would've gotten to her.

I can't imagine Kael liking any Malick film, although I don't think she would have hated The Tree of Life quite as much as Kellow suggests. Or let me put it this way--I think she would have recognized the same beauty in the childhood section that everyone else does, and that she would have acknowledged and resisted it. All the whispered, philosophical narration, that I think she would have hated. The dinosaurs, I'm guessing she'd have found them funny. I bet she would have reviewed it more favorably than J. Edgar.

I thought she said a couple of nice-ish things about Badlands...?

I wanted to check something from Kael's What's Up, Doc? review, and it seems that Geocities page is back in operation. Not sure when it returned, or how long it will stay. Useful, in that it saves a trip downstairs. (But not this time--the line I wanted isn't in the 5001 blurb.)

http://www.geocities.ws/paulinekaelreviews/index.html

It may be back, but it's still geocities.

Sorry, GeoCities has closed.
The GeoCities service is no longer available, but there's a lot more to explore on Yahoo!

Visit one of these popular Yahoo! sites:

geocities.ws

what line are you looking for clemenza, i could dig it up for you

Found it, thanks. It had to do with a Love Story joke in WUD?:

“It’s one thing for outsiders like me to call Love Story a boobish movie, but when O’Neal, who starred in it (and gave it all the conviction it had), turns around and dumps on it, and, implicitly, on the people who loved him in it, all he does is expose his own cheap, cute cynicism.”

she never said it (exactly):

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2012/10/The-Fraudulent-Factoid-That-Refuses-to-Die

Speaking of which (xpost), I love seeing this Sullivan headline on election eve:

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/11/which-side-is-now-pauline-kael.html

I long argued it would get worse before it got better on the right. It did get worse. But if Obama wins, it just might get a little better.

speaking of cognitive dissonance

I liked Kael's last interview where she said liberals couldn't see how American Beauty pandered to them. I think she'd fill George Clooney with venom.

George is seething with venom already. I don't think she could make him any more venomous.

Are there still liberals who don't see how American Beauty pandered to them?

Just me--love it. But let's save it for some other time.

Sort of thought American Beauty was pandering to conservatives. Meh.

God that movie sucked.

Well Eric, you haven't psychoanalyzed that dick Alan Ball like I have.

I'm psychoanalyzing your use of the word "dick" tho.

Not a fan of that arty sitcom American Beauty, but Ball acquired a lot of good will for me with Six Feet Under. Just not enough for me to watch True Blood.

The movie is clearly trying to be "pro-gay" "pro-sensitive-teen-rebel" and "pro-alienated-suburban-saddo," how could it be pandering to anyone but liberals in 1999?

pro-sensitive itinerant plastic bags too

It seemed more like "pro-every scene ending with a laugh line," to me.

It also sees career women as disgusting, gays as repressed murderous psychos, and littering as the cornerstone to seeing "so much beauty in the world."

Don't forget pro-Guess Who, and pro-1970 Firebirds.

What pisses me off the most about the film, though: Spacey is amazing in it.

repressed gays in the military as repressed murderous psychos

fixed

Yeah, it's a showbiz, vote-Democrat-til-you-die gay liberal perspective.

You still don't address its total misogyny. Oh right, gays.

Hated Spacey in this too, ftr.

Caveat: I haven't actually watched this dumb movie since 1999. So I could be wrong.

me neither, and no plans to ever again

Bening just seemed to be stuck in an off-week Carol Burnett Show sketch

guys did you notice their house was RED WHITE AND BLUE

omg

and being quite good at it; she gives the only watchable performance

xpost

Watched it again a few years back to re-test my opinion on it (then coloured by the fact of Todd Solondz' Happiness, from a year previous) and found that Spacey was actually good enough to keep me involved even through all of the piss poor writing, strident characterizations and sledgehammer symbolism.

and being quite good at it; she gives the only watchable performance

this

Bening's the only one who treats the material like Carol Burnett material.

this is all kind of an insult to the carol burnett show

Oh man, I just remembered how ham-fisted the portrayal of Allison Janney's character was.