Afterglow: A Last Conversation with Pauline Kael
This slim but potent volume offers movie lovers an elegant  good-bye from the acerbic, wildly opinionated National Book  Award- winning film critic who reigned at the New Yorker from  1968 to 1991. The New York Times called her "probably the most  influential film critic of her time." Kael's enthusiasm for  films was contagious, as she praised or damned them with giddy  vitality. Longtime friend Davis's three extended conversations  find the octogenarian still an avid moviegoer. While this book  doesn't offer extended reviews, fans will be delighted to hear  Kael weigh in on movies released since she stopped writing a  decade ago. She enjoyed the "sweet" Star Trek spoof Galaxy  Quest; the first half of Boogie Nights; High Fidelity ("it gets  better as it goes along"); and Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars.  She was also fond of TV's "terrific" Sex and the City and The  Sopranos ("I loved the first season and watched it  religiously"). She found Silence of the Lambs "a hideous and obvious piece of moviemaking"; Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut  "ludicrous from the word go"; and American Beauty "heavy and  turgid." She also blasts later-day Steven Spielberg (Always was  "a shameful movie" and the casting was "terribly wrongheaded" in  Schindler's List). Besides film quips, Kael defends her critical  review of the Holocaust documentary Shoah, regrets being talked  out of reviewing Deep Throat and discusses current filmmaking  and her 20-year battle with Parkinson's disease. (Sept. 3) FYI: The book's publication date coincides with the one-year  anniversary of Kael's death at age 82.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.