pauline kael bot
@paulinekaelbot.bsky.social
i lost it at the movies
LIMELIGHT (1952)
Chaplin's sentimental and high-minded view of theatre and himself...This is surely the richest hunk of self-gratification since Huck and Tom attended their own funeral—and Chaplin serves it up straight.
Chaplin's sentimental and high-minded view of theatre and himself...This is surely the richest hunk of self-gratification since Huck and Tom attended their own funeral—and Chaplin serves it up straight.
November 11, 2025 at 3:45 AM
LIMELIGHT (1952)
Chaplin's sentimental and high-minded view of theatre and himself...This is surely the richest hunk of self-gratification since Huck and Tom attended their own funeral—and Chaplin serves it up straight.
Chaplin's sentimental and high-minded view of theatre and himself...This is surely the richest hunk of self-gratification since Huck and Tom attended their own funeral—and Chaplin serves it up straight.
This kind of superstitious bilge—characters look at each other with fixed expressions, intoning lines like "It ain't natural"—was considered very artistic in twenties movies, and now it's back. (1971)
November 11, 2025 at 1:51 AM
This kind of superstitious bilge—characters look at each other with fixed expressions, intoning lines like "It ain't natural"—was considered very artistic in twenties movies, and now it's back. (1971)
There may never have been another American director as lacking in spontaneity as Paul Schrader. (1982)
November 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM
There may never have been another American director as lacking in spontaneity as Paul Schrader. (1982)
[SIXTEEN CANDLES] Anthony Michael Hall is in fact no more than a year older than the freshman he's playing. His Geek is a computer-age teen version of the early Woody Allen character—the fast-talking genius nerd—but Hall moves like Steve Martin, and even more confidently. (1984)
November 10, 2025 at 9:44 PM
[SIXTEEN CANDLES] Anthony Michael Hall is in fact no more than a year older than the freshman he's playing. His Geek is a computer-age teen version of the early Woody Allen character—the fast-talking genius nerd—but Hall moves like Steve Martin, and even more confidently. (1984)
Movie critics on TV discuss the relative grosses of the new releases; the grosses at this point relative to previous hits; which pictures will pass the others in a few weeks. It’s like the Olympics—which will be the winners? (1980)
November 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Movie critics on TV discuss the relative grosses of the new releases; the grosses at this point relative to previous hits; which pictures will pass the others in a few weeks. It’s like the Olympics—which will be the winners? (1980)
Anjelica Huston doesn't flaunt her androgyny or seem ashamed of it. Agelessness and androgyny are simply among her attributes. She's overpoweringly sexual; young men might find her frightening. (1990)
November 10, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Anjelica Huston doesn't flaunt her androgyny or seem ashamed of it. Agelessness and androgyny are simply among her attributes. She's overpoweringly sexual; young men might find her frightening. (1990)
In DOC, Stacy Keach presents so obdurate a face that you feel he has to consider when to let a flicker of expression through. (1971)
November 8, 2025 at 11:44 PM
In DOC, Stacy Keach presents so obdurate a face that you feel he has to consider when to let a flicker of expression through. (1971)
SMALL CHANGE is a fair-weather movie, brightened by the primary colors the children wear and their splotchy pink cheeks. The humor has the spontaneity of children's play—which is recognizable as the distinctive Truffaut humor in its purest form. (1976)
November 8, 2025 at 9:44 PM
SMALL CHANGE is a fair-weather movie, brightened by the primary colors the children wear and their splotchy pink cheeks. The humor has the spontaneity of children's play—which is recognizable as the distinctive Truffaut humor in its purest form. (1976)
I used to say that Altman made a good one and then a bad one, and so on. He made both in SHORT CUTS. It has some of his worst work and some of his best. (1994)
November 8, 2025 at 7:38 PM
I used to say that Altman made a good one and then a bad one, and so on. He made both in SHORT CUTS. It has some of his worst work and some of his best. (1994)
[THE FRENCH CONNECTION] It's not what I want not because it fails (it doesn't fail) but because of what it is. It is, I think, what we once feared mass entertainment might become: jolts for jocks. (1971)
November 8, 2025 at 5:34 PM
[THE FRENCH CONNECTION] It's not what I want not because it fails (it doesn't fail) but because of what it is. It is, I think, what we once feared mass entertainment might become: jolts for jocks. (1971)
[Candice Bergen] delivers her lines, pell-mell, as if vastly pleased that she remembered them...It is the worst starring performance I have ever seen. (1971)
November 8, 2025 at 3:36 PM
[Candice Bergen] delivers her lines, pell-mell, as if vastly pleased that she remembered them...It is the worst starring performance I have ever seen. (1971)
LADY IN THE LAKE (1946)
A Raymond Chandler murder mystery with the camera functioning as the Private Eye—that is, as the eyes of Philip Marlowe, the narrator-protagonist (Robert Montgomery), who is seen in his entirety only when his reflection is caught in mirrors.
A Raymond Chandler murder mystery with the camera functioning as the Private Eye—that is, as the eyes of Philip Marlowe, the narrator-protagonist (Robert Montgomery), who is seen in his entirety only when his reflection is caught in mirrors.
November 8, 2025 at 3:45 AM
LADY IN THE LAKE (1946)
A Raymond Chandler murder mystery with the camera functioning as the Private Eye—that is, as the eyes of Philip Marlowe, the narrator-protagonist (Robert Montgomery), who is seen in his entirety only when his reflection is caught in mirrors.
A Raymond Chandler murder mystery with the camera functioning as the Private Eye—that is, as the eyes of Philip Marlowe, the narrator-protagonist (Robert Montgomery), who is seen in his entirety only when his reflection is caught in mirrors.
Haven't we suffered enough with Joanne Woodward? Proficient, intensely likable actress though she is, ever since RACHEL, RACHEL she's been turning into the educated people's Lana Turner. (1973)
November 8, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Haven't we suffered enough with Joanne Woodward? Proficient, intensely likable actress though she is, ever since RACHEL, RACHEL she's been turning into the educated people's Lana Turner. (1973)
Malle resembles Fitzgerald, but a Fitzgerald with a vision formed from the inside, and with the intelligence for perspective. His is a deeply realistic comic view — free of Fitzgerald's romantic ruined dreams. (1971)
November 7, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Malle resembles Fitzgerald, but a Fitzgerald with a vision formed from the inside, and with the intelligence for perspective. His is a deeply realistic comic view — free of Fitzgerald's romantic ruined dreams. (1971)
[FELLINI'S ROMA] The film is like a funeral ode to an imaginary city under purplish, poisoned skies. The usual critical encomium "No one but Fellini could have made this movie" is certainly appropriate. Who else could have raised the money? (1972)
November 7, 2025 at 9:44 PM
[FELLINI'S ROMA] The film is like a funeral ode to an imaginary city under purplish, poisoned skies. The usual critical encomium "No one but Fellini could have made this movie" is certainly appropriate. Who else could have raised the money? (1972)
What counts in sci-fi movies (and what makes a sci-fi movie a classic) is the gimmicky, eerie metaphor—the disguised form of the thing you fear, or are set off by. (1973)
November 7, 2025 at 7:38 PM
What counts in sci-fi movies (and what makes a sci-fi movie a classic) is the gimmicky, eerie metaphor—the disguised form of the thing you fear, or are set off by. (1973)
If Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING is about anything that you can be sure of, it's tracking: Kubrick loves the ultra-smooth travelling shots made possible by the Steadicam. (1980)
November 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
If Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING is about anything that you can be sure of, it's tracking: Kubrick loves the ultra-smooth travelling shots made possible by the Steadicam. (1980)
[HOT TOMORROWS] It's a typical young-filmmaker's film, in the sense that it's movie-obsessed, but Brest's obsession takes a baroquely original form: to him, old movies—Hollywood musicals, in particular—are memento mori. (1979)
November 7, 2025 at 3:36 PM
[HOT TOMORROWS] It's a typical young-filmmaker's film, in the sense that it's movie-obsessed, but Brest's obsession takes a baroquely original form: to him, old movies—Hollywood musicals, in particular—are memento mori. (1979)
ENTER THE DRAGON (1973)
A good-natured example of the pleasures of schlock art...But it's not all schlock: the slender, swift Bruce Lee was the Fred Astaire of martial arts, and many of the fights that could be merely brutal come across as lightning-fast choreography.
A good-natured example of the pleasures of schlock art...But it's not all schlock: the slender, swift Bruce Lee was the Fred Astaire of martial arts, and many of the fights that could be merely brutal come across as lightning-fast choreography.
November 7, 2025 at 3:45 AM
ENTER THE DRAGON (1973)
A good-natured example of the pleasures of schlock art...But it's not all schlock: the slender, swift Bruce Lee was the Fred Astaire of martial arts, and many of the fights that could be merely brutal come across as lightning-fast choreography.
A good-natured example of the pleasures of schlock art...But it's not all schlock: the slender, swift Bruce Lee was the Fred Astaire of martial arts, and many of the fights that could be merely brutal come across as lightning-fast choreography.
[THE WARRIORS] The physical action is so stylized that it has a wild cartoon kick to it, like YOJIMBO and the best kung-fu movies. The fighting is exhilaratingly visceral, and so contrapuntal...that you have no thought of pain or gore. (1979)
November 7, 2025 at 1:51 AM
[THE WARRIORS] The physical action is so stylized that it has a wild cartoon kick to it, like YOJIMBO and the best kung-fu movies. The fighting is exhilaratingly visceral, and so contrapuntal...that you have no thought of pain or gore. (1979)
[THE INNOCENT] Like Ophuls, Visconti shows a richly ambiguous joy in evoking the past and in demonstrating that love can be a form of damnation which cancels out good sense even among the sophisticated. (1979)
November 6, 2025 at 11:44 PM
[THE INNOCENT] Like Ophuls, Visconti shows a richly ambiguous joy in evoking the past and in demonstrating that love can be a form of damnation which cancels out good sense even among the sophisticated. (1979)
[HARDCORE] The possibility also comes to mind that the porno world is Schrader's metaphor for show business, and that, in some corner of his mind, he is the runaway who became a prostitute. (1979)
November 6, 2025 at 9:44 PM
[HARDCORE] The possibility also comes to mind that the porno world is Schrader's metaphor for show business, and that, in some corner of his mind, he is the runaway who became a prostitute. (1979)
Redford carries his sunny aura from picture to picture; when he first shows up, you look for his baseball bat. (1985)
November 6, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Redford carries his sunny aura from picture to picture; when he first shows up, you look for his baseball bat. (1985)
There's a candy-man quality to Rob Lowe himself. He has no weight, no density. It's not that he's a bad actor—it's that he doesn't suggest a real person. (1986)
November 6, 2025 at 5:34 PM
There's a candy-man quality to Rob Lowe himself. He has no weight, no density. It's not that he's a bad actor—it's that he doesn't suggest a real person. (1986)
When it's the tired comic spectacle of rich old men degrading themselves for more money and fame and power, does it much matter if it's done poorly or with chic? In some ways the chic is more offensive. (1967)
November 6, 2025 at 3:36 PM
When it's the tired comic spectacle of rich old men degrading themselves for more money and fame and power, does it much matter if it's done poorly or with chic? In some ways the chic is more offensive. (1967)