68
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanAn exquisitely crafted documentary about the woman who was arguably the greatest movie critic who ever lived.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyThe Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyBefitting the subject's personality and entertainment predilections, What She Said is adamantly engaging, full of lively, appreciative voices that, more than anything else, bring her enthusiasm and keen-mindedness back to life.
- 80Screen DailyJonathan RomneyScreen DailyJonathan RomneyGarver’s film is above all a celebration of the pleasure of intellectual and emotional response to art (“To be paid for thinking is a marvellous way to live,” Kael says), and a picture of a style of thinking that might be seen as distinctively but non-stereotypically female.
- 75IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandDespite that iffy start, Garver’s film blossoms into something more comprehensive than complimentary, a film that doesn’t balk at the trickier aspects of Kael’s career, even as it never fully engages with the tensions that informed her.
- 75RogerEbert.comRogerEbert.comIt was perhaps a strength as a critic and a weakness as a person that she never understood how painful her words could be.
- 70Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDealing with a personality this strong could not have been easy, and director Garver, whose background is in short films, does a balanced job, giving space to Kael’s partisans while finding time for the other side.
- 63Slant MagazineChuck BowenSlant MagazineChuck BowenThe documentary is enjoyable, but one suspects that its subject may have found it soft.
- The state of modern criticism has never been so splintered. We create harsher and harsher binaries in our online response to cinema every day, so reading Kael can make you go, “Hey, remember pleasure?” While Garver’s documentary isn’t worthy of its subject’s fascinating artistic legacy, I anxiously await the one that is.
- 40The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisA numbing torrent of largely unidentified film clips and poorly labeled commentary, Rob Garver’s overstuffed tribute to the life and work of America’s best-known — and most written about — film critic is at times barely coherent.