Soderblog

You might find it strange that I posted a t-shirt with a CRITIC’S name on it, but Pauline was—and is—a special case. I don’t know anyone who’s any good—filmmaker or critic—who wasn’t influenced by her (even in opposition). I didn’t always agree with her, but that wasn’t the point. The POINT was you had to know what she thought, because she taught you how to look at and think about movies, and placed them in the context of works from other art forms. And the writing was PERSONAL; there was no pretext of objectivity, and that seemed honest to me (of course we all bring individuals biases to everything we look at, it can’t be avoided). She was allergic to pretension and loved trash if it was fun and had some style. Most importantly, unlike most critics, who are at their best/wittiest when they dislike something Pauline was at her absolute best when she LOVED something. She also benefited from good timing and rode a cultural moment that will never come again (movies will never MATTER the way they did when she was at her peak), but her words will always be with us, as vibrant and relevant as the day they were written.