Hooked

Blurb

Hooked is the ninth collection of movie reviews by the critic Pauline Kael, covering the period from July 1985 to June 1988.
All articles in the book originally appeared in The New Yorker.
She reviews more than 170 films giving rich praise to the work of directors and performers she admires - in this collection for example, Robert Altman; Alan Rudolph - for his film Songwriter; Nick Nolte; Susan Sarandon; Melanie Griffith; Lesley Ann Warren; Steve Martin in Roxanne. And she attacks what she regards as second rate, for example, George Lucas, -"George Lucas should believe less in himself - he keeps trying to come up with an original idea, and he can't"; and the film Heartbreak Ridge - "It would take a board of inquiry made up of gods to determine whether this picture is more offensive aesthetically, psychologically, morally, or politically."
The films she recommends include:
The Best of Times
Dreamchild
Sweet Dreams
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Compromising Positions
My Beautiful Laundrette
Mona Lisa
Salvador
Club Paradise
Mike's Murder
Blue Velvet
She's Gotta Have It
Re-Animator
Something Wild
Hour of the Star
The Stepfather
Law of Desire
Raising Arizona
Brazil
Roxanne
Tampopo