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Title: Maddeningly Uneven
Review: Whether or not you place much stock in the auteur theory popularized Stateside by Sarris and others a generation ago, he's clearly an important film critic well-versed in 30s cinema; thus I greatly looked forward to devouring this unsatisfying book. Maybe he spent TOO much time composing these essays. The tone veers from windy, knitted-brow over-intellectualizing to the gushiest fan-magazine sucrose this side of PHOTOPLAY magazine. Much of it is reasonably readable, and here and there Sarris offers little gems of observation and insight, but for the most part YOU AIN'T HEARD NOTHIN' YET! tries to steer a course between creamy nostalgia and hard-headed analysis, foundering often. Still worthwhile reading for younger cineastes just discovering the films of the 1930s, our richest-ever decade of great filmmaking.
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