Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark

Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark (2011) by Brian Kellow. The author has done a thorough, not to mention exhaustive, job of researching Kael and her life as a film critic. For the most part, the book is very interesting, but it really gets going in the '60s and '70s, when I started attending movies and thus have an opinion about the movies Kael reviewed. She was never one to follow the popular tide, but always went her own way and thought her own thoughts about the movies she saw. Even though I don't always agree with her opinions about a given movie, I always respect the weight of knowledge and experience that she brought to the critique. This is really a good book. Grade: A