For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009)

I'll admit I'm not objective, but I enjoyed "For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism," a documentary made by an American film critic about American film critics. Gerald Peary, longtime Boston Phoenix critic and a professor of film, spent four years conducting interviews for this breezy history, which starts with the origins of American reviewing in descriptive notes.

The talking heads include critics Andrew Sarris, Molly Haskell, grand old man

Stanley Kauffmann, B. Ruby Rich, Roger Ebert, Kenneth Turan, Harry Knowles of aintitcool.com fame and many others - maybe too many. It's a lot to cover in 81 minutes, and we get more breadth than depth.

Peary mentions early writers like Otis Ferguson and James Agee, and glances at the long reign of the New York Times' Bosley Crowther, who became an easy target for the upcoming generation of critics.

The film also outlines what is still the most famous clash in American film criticism, the dogfight over auteurism between Sarris (pro) and Pauline Kael (anti). Kael looms large in other ways - she had a penchant for grooming young critics who came to be called the Paulettes.

Peary concludes on a downbeat note about how many critics have lost their jobs in recent years.

If you're passionate about movies, you should see this one. It's short on production values, but that's appropriate - no one ever became a film critic for the money.

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