Pauline Kael on "All Fall Down" (1962)

Pauline Kael on “All Fall Down” (1962)

 

“…But the film turns out to be a portrait of the writer as an adolescent (Brandon deWilde plays the part) who grows up—“matures”—when he learns that the older brother he idolizes (Warren Beatty) is an empty wreck. Does anybody really grow up the way this boy grows up? He learns the truth, squares his shoulders, and walks out into the bright sunlight, as Alex North’s music rises and swells in victory. How many movies have pulled this damned visual homily on us, this synthetic growing-into-a-man, as if it happened all at once and forever? Suggested party game: ask your friends to tell about the summer they grew up. The one who tells the best lie has a promising career ahead as a Hollywood screenwriter.”