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Rating: 
Summary: the state of the art in moviemaking
Review: This is Pauline Kael's 8th collection of film reviews taken from The New Yorker magazine covering the period June 1983 to July 1985. The title is a departure from her sexually tinged titles of the past, chosen in favour of Grand Passions, since she wanted something to sound ominous and sweeping and just slightly clinical. The films she praises here include Under Fire, Stop Making Sense, Yentl, The Right Stuff, Prizzi's Honor, Choose Me, The Makioka Sisters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and The Leopard. The ones she pans include Flashdance ("You may think it's a little late for this girl to start taking ballet classes, but she's been dancing everynight in her dreams, so who needs practice?"), Terms of Endearment, Rambo, The Draughtman's Contract, Daniel, Silkwood, and The Cotton Club. Some quotes - I couldn't sit through Betrayal. My body wouldn't let me. Zelig is like a teeny carnival that you may have missed - it was in the yard behind the Methodist church last week. The speeches (in The Draughtman's Contract) are so arch and twitty they seemed to be pitched higher than a dog whistle. Sudden Impact might be taken for parody if the sledgehammer-slow pacing didn't tell you that the director wasn't in on the joke. And, if I never see another fist-fight or car chase or doberman attack, I won't have any feeling of loss. And that goes for rottweillers too.
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