Customer Reviews

Totally, Tenderly, Tragically

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Some go to the movies for entertainment, as a temporary escape from the day to day. For some, and certainly Phillip Lopate is among them, filmgoing is as much a part of everyday life as eating and breathing. Visiting a friend, going to work, writing, conversing, watching movies, reading books, each give texture to a life and call for thoughtful consideration. In that case "criticism" - reflecting on films, their revelations and disappointments - is not a merely "academic" discipline. It is as vital to the quality of life as, say, planning and reflection.

Lopate's excellent collection of essays on film and on a life in which filmgoing is central serves as an exemplar for criticism in this vital sense: criticism as engaged self-reflection as much as it is aesthetic contemplation. I loved reading this book, maybe because it validates my own obsessions, but mostly because it shows how to raise obsession with quality filmmaking to the level of art. Particularly valuable to me were his reflections on the "essay film" - because there is very little written on that subject and I find Lopate's thoughts to be the most insightful I've encountered. Highly recommended for those who can't do without good cinema and who value good writing.

Lopate's new book is a showcase for his brilliance, his ability to graze not only far but wide. But I can't help thinking that here, more than in any other of his books (all of which I have read) the brilliance is not as much in the insight but in the perfect choice of every word, the absolutely right adjective and adverb, which create a passionate sensual delight.While Lopate has a remarkable linguistic intelligence his work becomes even more impressive when he writes about movies than when he writes about anything else.I could have done without the Lewis commentary which wasn't necessary and seemed half-hearted, and I could have done without the suicide attempt because it seemed it could have led him to another book, one which I would very much want to read, but the recounting of his days in college were fabulous.