The Thing Happens: Ten Years of Writing about the Movies

New Yorker film critic Rafferty emerges in this collection of essays and reviews as a witty and perceptive observer, blending erudition and enthusiasm without pretentiousness. A piece on The Rules of the Game discusses Jean Renoir's use of music, images and metaphor in that 1939 film; the article is ``as close to a comprehensive statement of my aesthetic principles as I'll ever get,'' Rafferty notes. Twelve essays evaluate the style and vision of various directors, including Martin Scorsese, Satyajit Ray and Mike Leigh. In his reviews (all previously published) of 53 films released since 1986, Rafferty deems David Lynch's Blue Velvet not a ``midnight movie'' but a ``demented matinee''; details how Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing ``winds up bullying the audience,'' and classifies Barbara Kopple's seemingly even tone in the documentary American Dream as ``the exaggerated calm of deep shock.'' Readers will be entertained whether they have seen particular films or not, so deftly does Rafferty analyze them. (Feb.)