pauline kael bot
@paulinekaelbot.bsky.social
i lost it at the movies
OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
A thin but well-shot suspense melodrama, kept from collapsing by the suggestiveness and intensity that the director, Jacques Tourneur, pours on. It's empty trash, but you do keep watching it.
A thin but well-shot suspense melodrama, kept from collapsing by the suggestiveness and intensity that the director, Jacques Tourneur, pours on. It's empty trash, but you do keep watching it.
November 29, 2025 at 3:45 AM
OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
A thin but well-shot suspense melodrama, kept from collapsing by the suggestiveness and intensity that the director, Jacques Tourneur, pours on. It's empty trash, but you do keep watching it.
A thin but well-shot suspense melodrama, kept from collapsing by the suggestiveness and intensity that the director, Jacques Tourneur, pours on. It's empty trash, but you do keep watching it.
[INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS] Michael Chapman shows a gift here for bringing out the personality of the city locations; there's a finely drawn, cluttered grace in his San Francisco, and it intensifies the horror. (1978)
November 29, 2025 at 1:51 AM
[INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS] Michael Chapman shows a gift here for bringing out the personality of the city locations; there's a finely drawn, cluttered grace in his San Francisco, and it intensifies the horror. (1978)
In the eighties, films that aren't immediate box-office successes are instantly branded as losers, flops, bombs. It's almost as if they'd never been born. (1984)
November 28, 2025 at 11:44 PM
In the eighties, films that aren't immediate box-office successes are instantly branded as losers, flops, bombs. It's almost as if they'd never been born. (1984)
Part of the stylistic peculiarity of BREATHLESS — its art — is that while you're watching it, it's light and playful, off-the-cuff, even a little silly. It seems accidental that it embodies more of the modern world than other movies. (1961)
November 28, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Part of the stylistic peculiarity of BREATHLESS — its art — is that while you're watching it, it's light and playful, off-the-cuff, even a little silly. It seems accidental that it embodies more of the modern world than other movies. (1961)
I hope Demy's last two films won't be taken as proof that his first three were as stupid and sentimental as some people found them. (1969)
November 28, 2025 at 7:38 PM
I hope Demy's last two films won't be taken as proof that his first three were as stupid and sentimental as some people found them. (1969)
ZABRISKIE POINT is a disaster, but, as one might guess, Antonioni does not make an ordinary sort of disaster. This is a huge, jerry-built, crumbling ruin of a movie. (1970)
November 28, 2025 at 5:34 PM
ZABRISKIE POINT is a disaster, but, as one might guess, Antonioni does not make an ordinary sort of disaster. This is a huge, jerry-built, crumbling ruin of a movie. (1970)
Larry Peerce doesn't seem to understand that he hasn't earned the right to contempt the only way an artist can earn it—by the understanding he reveals. (1971)
November 28, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Larry Peerce doesn't seem to understand that he hasn't earned the right to contempt the only way an artist can earn it—by the understanding he reveals. (1971)
PHAEDRA (1962)
It's undermined by a lunatic piece of miscasting: when Melina Mercouri leaves her rich, powerful bull of a husband, Raf Vallone, to run away with his skinny young son, Anthony Perkins, the audience can't imagine why. She scoops him up in her arms, like a toy.
It's undermined by a lunatic piece of miscasting: when Melina Mercouri leaves her rich, powerful bull of a husband, Raf Vallone, to run away with his skinny young son, Anthony Perkins, the audience can't imagine why. She scoops him up in her arms, like a toy.
November 28, 2025 at 3:45 AM
PHAEDRA (1962)
It's undermined by a lunatic piece of miscasting: when Melina Mercouri leaves her rich, powerful bull of a husband, Raf Vallone, to run away with his skinny young son, Anthony Perkins, the audience can't imagine why. She scoops him up in her arms, like a toy.
It's undermined by a lunatic piece of miscasting: when Melina Mercouri leaves her rich, powerful bull of a husband, Raf Vallone, to run away with his skinny young son, Anthony Perkins, the audience can't imagine why. She scoops him up in her arms, like a toy.
[ROMANCING THE STONE] Kathleen Turner is particularly adept at letting herself be seen through. Her star performance is one long, infinitely varied double take, and it's exhilarating. (1984)
November 28, 2025 at 1:51 AM
[ROMANCING THE STONE] Kathleen Turner is particularly adept at letting herself be seen through. Her star performance is one long, infinitely varied double take, and it's exhilarating. (1984)
[ROBOCOP] This face seems tense, pained, ethereal. It has the imaginative beauty that stirs audiences at classic horror films. (1987)
November 27, 2025 at 11:44 PM
[ROBOCOP] This face seems tense, pained, ethereal. It has the imaginative beauty that stirs audiences at classic horror films. (1987)
[THE RED DESERT] Those who loved the movie, the TV producers' and architects' wives who feel that their lives are wasted and who are too "gifted" to do good, useful work, were likely to say things like, "I loved looking at it, I didn't care what the content was.” (1966)
November 27, 2025 at 9:44 PM
[THE RED DESERT] Those who loved the movie, the TV producers' and architects' wives who feel that their lives are wasted and who are too "gifted" to do good, useful work, were likely to say things like, "I loved looking at it, I didn't care what the content was.” (1966)
There's a basic, bland unadventurousness about HANNAH AND HER SISTERS: it never makes us wonder about anything. Hangups are there to be got through; the characters are like patients in the hands of a benevolent, godlike therapist. (1986)
November 27, 2025 at 7:38 PM
There's a basic, bland unadventurousness about HANNAH AND HER SISTERS: it never makes us wonder about anything. Hangups are there to be got through; the characters are like patients in the hands of a benevolent, godlike therapist. (1986)
THE LAST WALTZ (1978)
Arguably, the best of all rock-concert documentaries. Martin Scorsese's film of The Band's Thanksgiving, 1976, performance in San Francisco is even-tempered and intensely satisfying.
Arguably, the best of all rock-concert documentaries. Martin Scorsese's film of The Band's Thanksgiving, 1976, performance in San Francisco is even-tempered and intensely satisfying.
November 27, 2025 at 5:34 PM
THE LAST WALTZ (1978)
Arguably, the best of all rock-concert documentaries. Martin Scorsese's film of The Band's Thanksgiving, 1976, performance in San Francisco is even-tempered and intensely satisfying.
Arguably, the best of all rock-concert documentaries. Martin Scorsese's film of The Band's Thanksgiving, 1976, performance in San Francisco is even-tempered and intensely satisfying.
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)
Orson Welles' lead performance undermines his writing and directing in this glittering film noir; his features lapse into a hard-guy pout and he spouts an unbelievable brogue as an idealized tough Irishman.
Orson Welles' lead performance undermines his writing and directing in this glittering film noir; his features lapse into a hard-guy pout and he spouts an unbelievable brogue as an idealized tough Irishman.
November 27, 2025 at 1:51 AM
THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)
Orson Welles' lead performance undermines his writing and directing in this glittering film noir; his features lapse into a hard-guy pout and he spouts an unbelievable brogue as an idealized tough Irishman.
Orson Welles' lead performance undermines his writing and directing in this glittering film noir; his features lapse into a hard-guy pout and he spouts an unbelievable brogue as an idealized tough Irishman.
I know that I wasn’t exactly the innocent party: people who don’t like my writing find it both Olympian and smart-alecky. I guess at some level it is. But it was hellish to have actors with hurt feelings come gunning for me. (1994)
November 26, 2025 at 11:44 PM
I know that I wasn’t exactly the innocent party: people who don’t like my writing find it both Olympian and smart-alecky. I guess at some level it is. But it was hellish to have actors with hurt feelings come gunning for me. (1994)
[CARLITO'S WAY] Sean Penn gives one of his sneakily witty performances, and De Palma himself knows how to set up certain kinds of scenes better than practically anybody else ever has. (1994)
November 26, 2025 at 9:44 PM
[CARLITO'S WAY] Sean Penn gives one of his sneakily witty performances, and De Palma himself knows how to set up certain kinds of scenes better than practically anybody else ever has. (1994)
[DIRTY DANCING] Swayze gives the film a masculine dance strength. (Baby’s like a soft child holding on to big, virile Daddy; the picture seems subconsciously shaped to the reveries of teen-age girls.) (1987)
November 26, 2025 at 7:38 PM
[DIRTY DANCING] Swayze gives the film a masculine dance strength. (Baby’s like a soft child holding on to big, virile Daddy; the picture seems subconsciously shaped to the reveries of teen-age girls.) (1987)
Michael Mann has set THIEF in Chicago and designed it like a choo-choo train to the box office. He seems determined to outdo THE FRENCH CONNECTION and MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, but in his own classier, more ascetic way, and with Ideas. (1981)
November 26, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Michael Mann has set THIEF in Chicago and designed it like a choo-choo train to the box office. He seems determined to outdo THE FRENCH CONNECTION and MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, but in his own classier, more ascetic way, and with Ideas. (1981)
MY UNCLE ANTOINE (1971)
Claude Jutra, who made this plangent, simple masterpiece, plays the role of Fernand, the store clerk, who dallies with the uncle's wife (Olivette Thibault) and loves the townspeople, without illusions, for what they are.
Claude Jutra, who made this plangent, simple masterpiece, plays the role of Fernand, the store clerk, who dallies with the uncle's wife (Olivette Thibault) and loves the townspeople, without illusions, for what they are.
November 26, 2025 at 3:45 AM
MY UNCLE ANTOINE (1971)
Claude Jutra, who made this plangent, simple masterpiece, plays the role of Fernand, the store clerk, who dallies with the uncle's wife (Olivette Thibault) and loves the townspeople, without illusions, for what they are.
Claude Jutra, who made this plangent, simple masterpiece, plays the role of Fernand, the store clerk, who dallies with the uncle's wife (Olivette Thibault) and loves the townspeople, without illusions, for what they are.
If YELLOW SUBMARINE were not so good-natured and — despite all the "artistic" effects — unpretentious, one would be embarrassed; its chic style can't support much more than the message of "love." (1968)
November 26, 2025 at 1:51 AM
If YELLOW SUBMARINE were not so good-natured and — despite all the "artistic" effects — unpretentious, one would be embarrassed; its chic style can't support much more than the message of "love." (1968)
I don't want to push this so far as to say Marcel Marceau is to comedians I like as Antonioni's BLOW-UP is to movies I like, but the comparison may be suggestive. (1967)
November 25, 2025 at 11:44 PM
I don't want to push this so far as to say Marcel Marceau is to comedians I like as Antonioni's BLOW-UP is to movies I like, but the comparison may be suggestive. (1967)
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
It would be fun to be able to dismiss this as undoubtedly the best movie ever made in Pittsburgh, but it also happens to be one of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made.
It would be fun to be able to dismiss this as undoubtedly the best movie ever made in Pittsburgh, but it also happens to be one of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made.
November 25, 2025 at 9:44 PM
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
It would be fun to be able to dismiss this as undoubtedly the best movie ever made in Pittsburgh, but it also happens to be one of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made.
It would be fun to be able to dismiss this as undoubtedly the best movie ever made in Pittsburgh, but it also happens to be one of the most gruesomely terrifying movies ever made.
[FATAL ATTRACTION] It’s about men seeing feminists as witches, and, the way the facts are presented here, the woman is a witch. She terrorizes the lawyer and explains his fear of her by calling him a faggot. (1987)
November 25, 2025 at 8:42 PM
[FATAL ATTRACTION] It’s about men seeing feminists as witches, and, the way the facts are presented here, the woman is a witch. She terrorizes the lawyer and explains his fear of her by calling him a faggot. (1987)
Sydney Pollack's been coasting for so long that if by now he's afraid to trust any shot to hold our attention for more than six seconds he's right to be scared. (1977)
November 25, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Sydney Pollack's been coasting for so long that if by now he's afraid to trust any shot to hold our attention for more than six seconds he's right to be scared. (1977)
I've been referred to in print as a "cunt" by people I'd praised. The first time was by John Huston. We'd been friends and I'd defended him for years. But I wrote that NIGHT OF THE IGUANA was a lousy movie. So he called me a "cunt" to an interviewer. (1989)
November 25, 2025 at 5:34 PM
I've been referred to in print as a "cunt" by people I'd praised. The first time was by John Huston. We'd been friends and I'd defended him for years. But I wrote that NIGHT OF THE IGUANA was a lousy movie. So he called me a "cunt" to an interviewer. (1989)