There is [Renata Adler’s] famous Pauline Kael review. It is hard to remember what a cultural despot Kael, then the New Yorker‘s film critic, was when Adler took her down in 1980. Kael was bully, drama queen, suck-up, disciplinarian, hysteric, and — taking jobs and inducements from the people she promoted — a bit corrupt, too. Still, opprobrium yet attaches to Adler for her sweeping emperor’s-new-clothes … Continue reading Bad Friday Reading #1

But I especially like this shirt as a symbol. Just the idea of people wearing t-shirts of a film critic makes me happy. I know a few of you wear a shirt of my logo, which is obviously the best thing you could do ever. But this one is amazing because it looks like a rock t-shirt. It treats analysis of film art as rock … Continue reading Three chords and a Pauline Kael t-shirt

From Brian Kellow‘s Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark. The argument here seems to be “Let them grow up” (Kael) vs. “Use what you know to help shape their tastes” (Barra). I’m with Kael on this one, but it’s murky ground, especially when you consider the impulse to proselytize, which is part and parcel (well, to some degree, and not to the same degree … Continue reading Critical Parenting 101