What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

Name: What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
Genre: Biography, Documentary
Released: December 13, 2019
Duration: 98 min
Rating: 68
Cast: Alec Baldwin, Carol Baum, Dick Cavett, John Boorman, Johnny Carson

2019

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Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

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Movie Details & Credits

Juno Films | Release Date: December 13, 2019 | Not Rated

Starring: Alec Baldwin, Carol Baum, Dick Cavett, John Boorman, Johnny Carson, Lili Anolik, Peter Bogdanovich, Thomas Baum, William Peter Blatty, Woody Allen

Summary: Pauline Kael was likely the most powerful, and influential, movie critic of the 20th century. Her love of movies was revealed in her ruthless pursuit of what made a movie or an actor's performance work, or not, and why -- which made her a lightning rod amongst colleagues and readers. The latter golden age of movies of the 1960s and 1970sPauline Kael was likely the most powerful, and influential, movie critic of the 20th century. Her love of movies was revealed in her ruthless pursuit of what made a movie or an actor's performance work, or not, and why -- which made her a lightning rod amongst colleagues and readers. The latter golden age of movies of the 1960s and 1970s are the focus of this film that pursues the question of what made Pauline Kael's work so individual, so personal -- and so damned good.… Expand

Director: Rob Garver

Genre(s): Biography, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 98 min

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Critic Reviews

Owen Gleiberman

Dec 1, 2019

An exquisitely crafted documentary about the woman who was arguably the greatest movie critic who ever lived. Read full review

Todd McCarthy

Dec 1, 2019

Befitting the subject's personality and entertainment predilections, What She Said is adamantly engaging, full of lively, appreciative voices that, more than anything else, bring her enthusiasm and keen-mindedness back to life. Read full review

IndieWire Kate Erbland

Nov 28, 2018

Despite that iffy start, Garver’s film blossoms into something more comprehensive than complimentary, a film that doesn’t balk at the trickier aspects of Kael’s career, even as it never fully engages with the tensions that informed her. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Oct 12, 2020

Writer-director Rob Garver has gotten at the essence of the woman — a frustrated playwright who turned criticism into “short stories and sonnets,” as one fan says. Read full review

Lorry Kikta

Jan 23, 2020

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael is a wonderful visitation of the famed critic’s life. It’s also a great place to start if you know nothing about her. Read full review

Ty Burr

Feb 20, 2020

Leave it to James to sum up a legendary, culture-altering talent: “She turned her lack of self-awareness into a triumph.” Both sides of that coin live on in our modern culture, and Kael’s voice fills every self-satisfied corner of the Internet. Two decades after her death, she’s still the ghost in the machine. Read full review

Jeannette Catsoulis

Dec 26, 2019

A numbing torrent of largely unidentified film clips and poorly labeled commentary, Rob Garver’s overstuffed tribute to the life and work of America’s best-known — and most written about — film critic is at times barely coherent. Read full review

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Brent_Marchant

Apr 30, 2020

This cinematic homage to one of film criticism's most influential -- and controversial -- representatives provides audiences with a passable overview of its subject, but it feels unsatisfyingly incomplete, never quite getting to the meat of the matter as effectively as it could have. We'reThis cinematic homage to one of film criticism's most influential -- and controversial -- representatives provides audiences with a passable overview of its subject, but it feels unsatisfyingly incomplete, never quite getting to the meat of the matter as effectively as it could have. We're provided with the requisite biography, interviews with knowledgeable commentators and narrated snippets of the critic's prose, but what's lacking is a meaningful, in-depth, coherently organized discussion of the motivations and sensibilities that drove her work. Instead, we're given a scattershot buffet of passing observations, reminiscences of colleagues and those she wrote about, and anecdotes about specific films that she either liked or detested. Viewers come away from this offering never really grasping what drove Pauline Kael's work and why, leaving a more than palpable and lingering sense of hunger, a disappointment given how significant a role she played in the field in which she became such a powerful influence.… Expand

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