"There’s something about formalism that’s a little bit like music, and you can lose yourself in the joy of it when you make movies because it’s so much fun. This is one of those very rare subzero love stories, but it works because it’s like modernist poetry. It’s like when you have really hot food and you put it in the freezer and then you taste a little bit and you can sense that it was really hot but it’s been chilled down. Formalism doesn’t get any better than this, and every time I think about associative logic, this film is what I am thinking of."

"Russ Meyer’s magnum opus is a singular, nonstop whirlwind of a movie—and proof positive that the style of a work can also be its substance. Meyer was one of cinema’s most meticulous craftsmen and also one of the most innovative editors of the twentieth century. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a beautiful, visceral movie, and it’s so far ahead of its time that we’re still catching up with it. Nothing here is accidental. This is capital-A Art. Anyone who thinks this movie is “so bad it’s good” has no sense of taste or style and is probably bad in bed."