Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark (2011)

It's generally a Pauline Kael love fest as critics, filmmakers and academics including David Edelstein, Brian Kellow, Geoffrey O'Brien, James Toback, Camille Paglia, and Todd McCarthy gather to discuss the life and writings of New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael. They reference the biography Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark by Brian Kellow and the panel paints a portrait of this movie critic that is much more complex than the shallow dismissals of her many detractors. Professor Camille Paglia is maybe the most enthusiastic of the bunch as she praises Kael for anti-academic approach to writing about movies. They reference many of her writings and talk about the films and filmmakers she loved and hated. The panel generally agrees that no film critic today writes with the passion, humor, and jazzy rhythms of the late great Pauline Kael.

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