Kimberlin is a Northern California native with a love of movie making and a career that included indie films and a long-standing editor position at ILM. This memoir is a very personal series of recollections and vignettes of what he saw or experienced while in the movie making industry as well as his own biography. The book is notable for contrasting the 'outsider' feel of being in the greater San Francisco/San Marino areas as opposed to Los Angeles/Hollywood. As well, the very insular life of working for decades at the Skywalker Ranch for ILM is a perspective we have rarely seen. The focus is not on Star Wars but on ILMs work in the movie industry in the 1980s/1990s (Jurassic Park, Cocoon, etc.)

Problematic for me is the writing. Though friendly and conversational, it is a hot mess - jumping around willy nilly with no segues and a lot of confusion. Often, the writer would start talking about one thing in the 1970s and then abruptly be in the 1980s on a completely different topic. I'm sure the transitions made sense to him but a lot of them were baffling. And to be honest, for those of us reading, it would have greatly helped put so much into perspective better (especially how special effects changed in the 1980s from analog to digital) had we been given a more chronological presentation. This stream of consciousness randomness can have its own appeal, I know, but by the end of the book, I felt somewhat cheated out of a good story. There was too much to reassemble into cohesion and too many meaningful connections lost. There was absolutely no structure and flow - and that perhaps is the greatest irony considering this was written by an editor.

Because Kimberlin is very much about filmmaking before the solid state era, he has some interesting perspectives as digital overtook celluloid. He was there at ILM through the 1980s all the way up until the move to the Presidio. This is definitely a book for cinemaphiles since there is so much about the technical side side of the business. The book feels more like a love letter for cinema romanticists than for those looking for 'juicy gossip' on ILM, Star Wars, and George Lucas. Indeed, despite the title, the book has very little about Star Wars in it, unless you count editing concerns. He was never in contact with the sets or stars, so we only really get perspective on what the second in the trilogy (and the eventual remasters) did for series. And about the preservation of the first film and the troubles they ran into when remastering. Add in a few discussions about how to make the Star Wars vehicles fly realistically.

There are some odd notes. E.g., talking about how all the interns were white and he was pushing to get a black intern - and then when he did, talked about how the kid couldn't fit in. And a lot of the book talks about his side projects, from real estate to his indie films to finding his family's rich history. Too much of it did feel like he had a self promotion agenda - almost as if we are watching an infomercial on his side projects to give them visibility in order to 'pay' for the inside information he would present about ILM.

One of the most interesting takeaways, especially in light of what is happening in the movie industry with the Weinstein scandals, is the 'bad boys' man-child mentality of the up-and-coming Silicon Valley computer whiz kids. Even ILM had the 'geniuses' who could create magic with computers (read: Jurassic Park dinosaurs) but who also caused headaches and unpleasantness with their demands and antics.

Those looking for inside information about Star Wars will be disappointed. This is really about technical editing at ILM in the 1980s, an indie filmmaker, his quest for his roots, and the changing of filmmaking from analog to digital special effects. As well, there are interesting observations about George Lucas and how ILM was run, life on the remote and insular Skywalker Ranch, and the development of Silicon Valley/Northern California into a filmmaking town outside of Hollywood. But be prepared for a choppy, chaotic, and random-feeling read. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

This is an insider's memoir of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic from the late 1970s onward, probably of far more interest to film industry readers than me. Kimberlin has seen it all, including the many things that worked because of (or in some cases, despite) George Lucas' personal touch.