Movies That Mattered: More Reviews from a Transformative Decade

Kehr, a curator for the Museum of Modern Art’s Film Department, follows his first collection of reviews, When Movies Mattered, with a volume that follows the same format as its predecessor. This outing reprints more work from his past career as a critic, mostly reviews of individual films published between 1974 and 1986, either in the Chicago Reader or Chicago Magazine. Kehr brings a rigorous intellect to bear on all his subjects, but of particular interest is a final section, “Autopsies/Minority Reports,” that collects Kehr’s dissenting views on highly regarded titles. His deconstruction of Apocalypse Now shows that the conversations being had around that film—namely, about whether its visual virtuosity expresses any moral core—haven’t changed all that much in almost 40 years; his take on Raiders of the Lost Ark is withering. The inclusion of several review-length mini-essays on general film topics, including “Sequels” and “Home Video,” highlights Kehr’s range as a thinker. Kehr is a prodigious critic and this collection is an excellent sampling of his voice. [em](Oct.) [/em]