And Chet Baker in Let's Get Lost; " He's singing a torch song after the flame is gone; he's selling the romance of burnout."

Perhaps pre-eminently in this collection she praises Brian De Palma's Casualties of War; "Some movies - La Grande Illusion, and Shoeshine come to mind, - can affect us in more direct, emotional ways than simple entertainment movies.

And she's cool to what she regards as second rate - Field of Dreams, for example, - 'That the film is sincere doesn't mean it's not manipulative.'

The films she recommends include; Patty Hearst, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, True Believer, Scrooged, The Dressmaker, Dangerous Liaisons, Out Cold, Let's Get Lost, Say Anything..., Casualties of War, Ghostbusters II, Batman, The Fabulous Baker Boys, My Left Foot, Enemies, The Tall Guy, The Grifters, Vincent & Theo, Everybody Wins, L.A. Story.

Notably absent from this collection of reviews are the longer general essays on the films that Kael had written and included in past anthologies.