No movie critic has ever inspired such passionate loyalty, nor ruffled so many feathers, as the late Pauline Kael, whose 24-year reign at The New Yorker changed the way we talk about movies. This rich and punchy look at her life and career covers all the controversies and quarrels: The Sound of Music review that got her fired from McCall’s; The Bonnie and Clyde essay that changed both the movie’s fortunes and her own; her feuds with writers Andrew Sarris and Norman Mailer; her over-the-moon rave about Last Tango in Paris;and the Shoah pan that drove her editor William Shawn nuts. It’s all here and much more, including juicy interviews with both fans (David O. Russell) and foes (David Lean, who stopped making movies for a decade after she attacked him in person), and a large and witty selection of clips from the movies she loved and hated.

Director Rob Garver will be in attendance January 10 and 13.