The Size of My View

13 Ways of Looking at Roger

(Getting back to writing after my illness and two week break…)

Roger’s style evolved throughout his career, and not just in terms of experience. If you compare one of his early reviews from the late 60s, to the last pieces he wrote before his death, you will find yourself looking at two different critics. In his earlier reviews, Roger used his life to talk about movies. But some point along the way this changed, and by the end, he used movies as a way to talk about life.

To give a sense of his evolution, I have picked 13 reviews from the course of his career showing his development in how he viewed movies and life. When making the selection, I was aware of what would be left out, so I have tried to show off my favorites while also being representative. I have also not included any of his “Great Movies” essays, in an attempt to get a more “immediate” feel.

1. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Like Vertigo and It’s a Wonderful Life, Arthur Penn’s fictionalized account of the legendary depression era outlaws was not an immediate success upon release. The film received only one positive review upon its opening (guess who’s?). Roger would later name it the best film of 1967, his first full year as a film critic. In paralleling the violent lives of the outlaws, with 1960s America, Roger went against the (then) census opinion with his own argument, although he is still stylistically in debt to his mentors (Pauline Kael especially).
2. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) Roger ranked McCabe… second on his list of the 10 best movies of 1971 (He would later admit that this was a mistake and that it should have been at the top spot instead of The Last Picture Show). Having seen this film because of Roger’s “Great Movies” essay (which is where I first heard of it), I see that by this time he was starting to come into his own as a critic. Quintessential Roger line from the review: “Death is very final in this western, because the movie is about life. Most Westerns are about killing and getting killed, which means they’re not about life and death at all.” In his look at Robert Altman’s melancholic “anti-western,” Roger illuminates a movie with life where you might not expect to find it.
3. The Godfather, Part II (1974) One of Roger’s most controversial judgments that earned him no end of grief from readers (see also Blue Velvet), dating from the era that won him the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. His main criticism of the film (which he would reinforce even when he elevated it to “Great Movie” status, where he stated he still stood by every word of his first judgement) was that the film’s layout, contrasting Michael’s fall with the flashbacks showing Vito’s rise, structurally weakened the film. Not having seen it, I cannot vouch for that. I chose this review from Roger’s “Pulitzer year” to show a different side of him as well as showing him going against popular opinion. That and it’s also one of his lengthiest and best written reviews from a technical standpoint.
4. The Hindenburg (1975) This is one of two “thumbs down” reviews I have picked for this post, this one to show “Bad Roger” at his caustic and hilarious best.
5. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Choosing this particular review was fraught, given the director is Woody Allen. In the end, I went with it because it shows the development of Roger’s critical style (the entire passage where he talks about the sensibility and viewpoint of the artist as a character is one of the best things he written) as well as hinting at the more “introspective” style he will adopt in later years
6. JFK (1991) Another case of Roger going against the grain in a different way and stepping to bat for a film attacked upon its release. His defense of the film hinged upon the idea that the film was about the “feelings” and not the “facts” of the Kennedy assassination (something he gave more elaboration on when he revisited the film for his “Great Movies” series), a position that was later backed up by Oliver Stone who said the film was “not about what did happen, but about what might’ve happened.” (Later named as the best film of 1991)
7. Maborosi (1995; stateside release 1997) Now here is one that I would never have heard of had it not been for Roger. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s debut about a Japanese widow trying to come to terms with the suicide of her husband is shot through with the influence of Yasujiro Ozu (a favorite director Roger and I both share). Note Roger’s comment that it is a film “where you actively have to place yourself in the character’s mind,” something most American films would never dare attempt.
8. The Truman Show (1998) If I had to pick a single review from Roger’s oeuvre to show off all of his strengths, this would be it. Roger the critic meets Roger the philosopher meets Roger the humanist as he begins to start using movies to talk about life. Two big thumbs up.
9. Donnie Darko (2001) The second “thumbs down” review on my list, but I’m going to question Roger’s judgement. Despite giving the film 2 1/2 stars out of four (his highest “bad rating”) he does not seem to dislike the film that much. Putting aside his criticism of the ending, he has more positive things to say than negative. In my opinion, Roger liked this film more than he would like to admit, or was conflicted when he sent his review off to the copy editor. Footnote: Roger gave the director’s cut a half star more, while saying that his opinion was largely unchanged (compare with Godfather Part II above).
10. Shopgirl (2005) Dating advice disguised as a movie review: Roger’s look at the adaptation of Steve Martin’s novella has so much good relationship talk, that the film itself seems to be beside the point.
11. Synecdoche, New York (2008) First post cancer review: like Shopgirl and The Truman Show only now working on a higher plane of writing and thought quality. The most unusual review of Roger’s that I’ve ever read and a contender for his greatest. 
12. The Spectacular Now (2013) I have a specific memory of reading this review. I was on Rotten Tomatoes looking at the critic opinions of new movies that had come out, and under the review reviews for this film I saw a review attributed to Roger. I clicked on it instantly, not because I particularly wanted to see the film he was reviewing, but because I missed hearing his voice, and it was a joy to hear it one more time no matter what he was talking about.
13. To the Wonder (2013) The last review Roger ever wrote, so naturally it earned the automatic place on here regardless of what it was. What starts off as a typical movie review morphs into a brief but thoughtful meditation on the movies as a whole:

“Why must a film explain everything? Why must every motivation be spelled out? Aren’t many films fundamentally the same film, with only the specifics changed? Aren’t many of them telling the same story? Seeking perfection, we see what our dreams and hopes might look like. We realize they come as a gift through no power of our own, and if we lose them, isn’t that almost worse than never having had them in the first place?”

I miss you so much Roger. There are not enough thumbs to show how much you mean to me.

Endnote: there was going to be a part three of this, but I’ve decided to shelve that idea. I’m really surprised how well this came out and I think this wraps it up perfectly.

Patrick Paul Barrett