bell hooks has ascended to near super-stardom in academic circles, in part due to her ability to appeal to general readers without surrendering the sharpness of her critical edge. As a black woman, hooks has provided an insistent interrogative voice from a perspective that allows her to question the status quo and its representations of marginalized communities. Thus, the appearance of a collection of film criticism—a field in which she has dabbled since her biting critique of She's Gotta Have It—is a welcome occasion. Though it includes this work, Reel To Real is largely given over to more recent essays on movies such as Kids, Pulp Fiction and Waiting to Exhale. And even though some observations are questionable—does Samuel L. Jackson's wig really undermine everything his character says in Pulp Fiction?—hooks is worth reading for her intelligent, passionate and often convincing writings. Her biggest problem is an inability to contain bell hooks the lower-case media personality within bell hooks the critic. Consequently, the middle of Reel To Real contains a series of frustrating interviews in which the author says more than her subjects do.