I loved that entire essay. He was appreciating Harold Lloyd in the years when I thought nobody was. He takes silent comedy seriously; he doesn't just praise it, he turns it over and taps at it to see what works and what doesn't and in all cases I think he's right.
Yes, yes! It's just amazing. NOBODY was writing about silent films when he was, and he did them such beautiful justice. That's what real criticism is I think.
....oh ghod seriously. Of course it tells you everything you need to know that picture was directed by Alan Parker and written by Bo Goldman, but I was too young to know what that meant at the time. "To this day Shoot the Moon has a perfect 100% score on the critic site Rotten Tomatoes," Wikipedia trumpets. Which also tells you all you need to know about Wikipedia and RT, BUT ANYWAY.
You try saying no to the Earth Mother, see where that gets you.
INDEED
Kael was, uh, shockingly ignorant about a lot of things, which on the one hand she tries not to make matter as she's writing about the "pop" visceral appeal of movies, but OTOH she totally misses the written-in boytoy appeal of Perkins just as you say in your review (which is great). Which to be fair a lot of critics did (Perkins as sinuous youthful hottie seemed to upset a lot of male film critics in the early sixties), but when someone flings around stuff like "Last Tango in Paris is the Le Sacre du printemps of our time" they're kind of trying to have their brows be both high and low at once. Which can work if you have the background to carry it off, but she doesn't.
no subject
Yes, yes! It's just amazing. NOBODY was writing about silent films when he was, and he did them such beautiful justice. That's what real criticism is I think.
....oh ghod seriously. Of course it tells you everything you need to know that picture was directed by Alan Parker and written by Bo Goldman, but I was too young to know what that meant at the time. "To this day Shoot the Moon has a perfect 100% score on the critic site Rotten Tomatoes," Wikipedia trumpets. Which also tells you all you need to know about Wikipedia and RT, BUT ANYWAY.
You try saying no to the Earth Mother, see where that gets you.
INDEED
Kael was, uh, shockingly ignorant about a lot of things, which on the one hand she tries not to make matter as she's writing about the "pop" visceral appeal of movies, but OTOH she totally misses the written-in boytoy appeal of Perkins just as you say in your review (which is great). Which to be fair a lot of critics did (Perkins as sinuous youthful hottie seemed to upset a lot of male film critics in the early sixties), but when someone flings around stuff like "Last Tango in Paris is the Le Sacre du printemps of our time" they're kind of trying to have their brows be both high and low at once. Which can work if you have the background to carry it off, but she doesn't.