Donate & keep LugaTv alive
Pauline Kael, the New Yorker film critic for 25 years until the early 1990s, was a lightning rod of American culture. She waged a battle to be recognized and her opinions made her readers hate or love her. Her distinctive voice pioneered the art form, and was largely a result of stubborn determination, huge confidence, and a deep love of the arts. The movie also shows 20th-century movies through Paulines eye, and shows Paulines own life through moments of other movies. The filmmakers had complete access to the subject -- through Gina James, Paulines only child and the executor of her estate; friends and colleagues; and Paulines personal archives. With over 30 new interviews, including David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, Camille Paglia, Molly Haskell, Alec Baldwin Greil Marcus, Paul Schrader, John Guare and Joe Morgenstern. Sarah Jessica Parker voices Pauline through her writing and letters.
The life, focusing mostly on career, of , best known as the controversial film critic for the New Yorker Magazine in the 1970s and 1980s - film criticism a job into which she fell as opposed to it being one she pursued - is presented largely through interviews, both current day and archival, including with Kael herself, and clips from many of the films for which she provided criticism, those clips both in highlighting her criticism and as a commentary of her as a critic. The controversy stemmed primarily in she bucking the trend of most critics of her time, especially in her early career, in she appreciating things that were new and fresh as opposed to things that were conventional, that pandered to audiences or that were trying to manipulate the audience artificially. She also largely wrote about the entire movie experience as it was associated to her own life as opposed to just reviewing the movie in and of itself per se. She championed certain movies and filmmakers - which gave those movies a profile and associated audience it may not have had otherwise - tried to rally other critics to those films and filmmakers, and was also not snobbish about praising what would proverbially be considered "trash" for the entertainment that some trash provided. The film also talks about her overall life as a film critic, writing for any of the publications she did not providing for a living wage, she needing to supplement her income through associated means, such as speaking engagements and writing books on film criticism.
Pauline Kael
Self
John Guare
Self
David Edelstein
Self
Greil Marcus
Self
Gina James
Self
Camille Paglia
Self
Brian Kellow
Self
Craig Seligman
Self
Jaime Manrique
Self
Daryl Chin
Self
Dick Cavett
Self
Lili Anolik
Self
Edward Landberg
Self
James Wolcott
Self
Paul Schrader
Self
Molly Haskell
Self
Phillip Lopate
Self
David O. Russell
Self
Related Movies
Donate & keep LugaTv alive