Excellent, hilarious and strikingly nonfecal takes on classic blockbusters of the recent decades. I’m a complete cinema junkie and, as much as I’m all about books, in many ways movies are easier to love than books, they are easier to enjoy with someone, they stick with you more (that’s how my memory works anyway), they are more universal. They are also shorter and more user friendly, a shitty movie will still have the courtesy to end within 120 minutes or so, the shitty book will go on. Movies are easier to revisit. It might be a dumb magic or at least a dumbing down one, but it’s still, undeniably, magic. So that’s what drew me to this book. A promise of a fresh humorous take on beloved and otherwise classics from a very contemporary, hyper woke, militantly feminist perspective. F*ck yeah. Bring it. And boy did it. Lindy West, whoever she is, I’ve never heard of her, I’m not that hip, is freaking hilarious and so very unapologetically herself, it’s a pleasure. You may not agree with all her views and still enjoy this book. Although if you are a fan of current administration, you might want to stay away, she bashes it pretty brutally. Also…you read? Fascinating. Personally I’m wary of the effects of reexamining the past under the unforgiving loupe of the hyper aggressive political correctness of the present. Which is to say I understand the concept and agree with some of it, but also believe that people/books/ideas and yes, movies are very much a product of their time, ideological representations of the prevalent mentalities of their era. You can’t reedit the past based on the present, well, mostly anyway, It just can’t work. The past is there to be learned from and (ideally) not repeated. You can’t just get woke, topple some statues and proclaim a new world to appease your freshly found conscience. The world doesn’t work this way, people (majority of) don’t work that way and it’s bound to produce an epic backlash. But…it works well for movie reviews. Because the great silver whales of the 80s and 90s and 00s really did have some backwards ideas. And that isn’t just because they were old, it’s because they were blockbusters, meant to target the lowest hanging audience fruit and therefore not exactly winning any MENSA entries plot wise nor any awards from great and greatly accurate depictions of life and people. They are the overblown MichaelBayed spectacles of (usually) hypermasculinity and terrible science. And Lindy West not just calls them out on it, she rips them brutally for it. And it’s so freaking funny. Rated on a scale from 0 to Fugitive, which is her idea of a perfect movie, chronologically it’s from Top Gun to Twilight with bunches of boombastic trasures in between. She actually does the entire movie plot for each chapter with awesomely hilarious asides. Even her footnotes kill. Butts are genitals. Prove me wrong. Something like that. That’s footnote gold right there. You might not be able to have a movie night with a friend during these apocalyptic times and West is here do offer you the next best thing. Actually, I don’t know if I’d want to do a movie night with her, she seems like she talks through movies, a lot. But would be totally on board to hear her opinions on movies any time. In fact, hope she rewatches more modern classics and writes a sequel. Meanwhile, this was great, few things make me laugh out loud during these sh*tty sh*tty times we live in, but this one did. Repeatedly. So thanks for the laughs, Lindy West. And go read this book. Sh*t, actually is the sh*t. So very excellent. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I will be honest, I only read about half of the essays in this book because I hadn’t seen a lot of the movies the author wrote about. But what I read, I really loved! Hilarious and spot-on reviews of the plot holes in the Harry Potter series, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Love Actually, and many more! Also loved her introduction. Funny and well-written. 4 stars.

Super funny. I actually have seen most of the movies in the book, which is kind of a miracle? I don't watch many movies.

Seriously, in most essays, especially those in the first half of the book, there was so much out-loud laughter. I think I was bothering my husband with it, that's how much I was laughing.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC.

Funny, Actually

This book is truly funny, and after having really hoped for it to be entertaining I'm pleased to be able to write an enthusiastically positive review.

I'm so old I remember reading Art Buchwald, (look it up), in the newspaper. I'm tired of my generation's humorists, (P.J. O'Rourke just wants you to get off his lawn). I'm tired of the guys my son's age who all write the same book about how cute they are because they are incompetent klutzes and abject failures. What is that about? I've lost all interest in people who think they can turn their stand up act into a hilarious book just by also adding a bunch of stuff about how hard stand up comedy is, (boo hoo), and doing a lot of name dropping. And I'm really tired of anyone who was ever in the writers' room of a late night TV show and now thinks they can write a whole book.

Saddest of all, I am resigned to the fact that Nora Ephron isn't coming back.

But guess what. Lindy West is the real deal. She's now a high profile opinionator who writes about feminism, social justice, reproductive rights, body image, and political culture. But once upon a time she was the brutally flippant, off the hook, irreverent, ornery, and very funny movie critic for Seattle's alternative weekly "The Stranger". As she tells us in her Foreword, finding herself stuck inside because of Covid-19 she decided to revisit her movie critic days, freshen up some old reviews, work up some new reviews, and share them with us as part of what is becoming a possible 18 month long shelter-in-place with a movie night.

The reviews range from hilarious to very amusing. That is an excellent range. They are sly and edgy and rude and marked by an abundance of witty throwaway lines and observations. This isn't Siskel and Ebert territory. This is barely movie reviewing as we usually think of it. The movies being reviewed are mostly just jumping off points for whatever strikes West as funny and somehow pertains to the movie. The reviews aren't even really reviews; they are more like very smart movie rants with an abundance of silly jokes tossed in.

Do you remember that show "Mystery Science Theater" in which a guy and his sentient robot pals made wisecrack comments at old B movies? Well, picture your funniest, wittiest, most irreverent, best friends sitting with you on your couch, while having just the right amount to drink, talking back to Tom Cruise in "Top Gun". That's this book.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

A modern take on film classics. Do you think you know the version of your favorite films? Think again while this creative author breaks down the logic and social issues of the film genre.