What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (2018)

(On Cable TV, March 2022) As a movie reviewer, I am legally obliged to burn a candle to patron saint Pauline Kael every year or so. I kid, but I have several of her books on my shelves, and her influence remains undeniable even decades after her death. While her approach may not seem all that novel today, it’s because she led the charge in democratizing movie reviewing, making it approachable to the masses in a way that feels right at home in today’s film criticism environment. What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael presents an overview of her life, from early formative experience (she saw first-run silent movies in theatres!) to her picking up a pen as a critic in her mid-thirties and then living an immersive life in film… even if it didn’t pay the bills. Fair amounts of Kael’s own writing feature in the film, giving a fair depiction of a writer in audiovisual format. The other thing that comes across is Kael’s own unpretentiousness, as she skewers films, receives comments (freeze-frame for a really fun letter from Gene Hackman) and reflects on her own life through interview footage. Clearly meant as a celebration of Kael rather than a warts-and-all critique, What She Said is nonetheless a good introduction or refresher to a significant figure in film criticism. It makes a decent case for her importance and gives viewers a peek at the words that made her so famous. It’s difficult to ask for more!