If it took some effort to see old movies, we might try to find out which were the good ones, and if people saw only the good ones maybe they would still respect old movies. As it is, people sit and watch movies that audiences walked out on thirty years ago.
Pauline KaelThe romance of movies is not just in those stories and those people on the screen but in the adolescent dream of meeting others who feel as you do about what youโve seen.
Pauline KaelThe movies have been so rank the last couple of years that when I see people lining up to buy tickets I sometimes think that the movies aren't drawing an audience - they're inheriting an audience. People just want to go to a movie. They're stung repeatedly, yet their desire for a good movie - for any movie - is so strong that all over the country they keep lining up.
Pauline KaelGood movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again. If somewhere in the Hollywood-entertainment world someone has managed to break through with something that speaks to you, then it isnโt all corruption. The movie doesnโt have to be great; it can be stupid and empty and you can still have the joy of a good performance, or the joy in just a good line. An actorโs scowl, a small subversive gesture, a dirty remark that someone tosses off with a mock-innocent face, and the world makes a little bit of sense.
Pauline Kael