This book made me cackle so loud that my partner came to check on me at least 6 times while reading it. West examines all of those blockbuster hits we loved(?) in the 90s/early 2000s through a modern lens and skewers the Michael Bay-ness of it all while simultaneously lamenting the pandemic era she's writing through.
I'd recommend this to anyone who loves movies and needs a lighthearted non-fic read as a palette cleanser before picking up fiction or a more serious non-fic title. I'd also recommend this to every woman who has ever jokingly(?) declared how disappointing men are.

I absolutely love movies, so this book was absolutely made for me.

You should know going in that there's a decent chance you will love at least one of the movies that's skewered in this essay collection. You should ALSO know that it's still going to be funny and you'll laugh out loud (even if you wince because, come on, isn't Jurassic Park off limits? Can't we at least agree on this?).

Simply put, this book is a complete delight, and one I am very happy I read...and one that a lot of people will be getting for a winter holiday.

Highly recommended.

Snarky reassessments of 1980s and 1990s movies ranging from brotastic action movies (Bad Boys 2, Top Gun, Face/Off), family fare (Lion King, Honey I Shrunk the Kids),movies that were bad when they came out (the Notebook, Twilight), Christmas Movies (Santa Clause and the titular Love, Actually), and classics (Shawshank Redemption, the Fugitive). Other than the Fugitive, very few of these movies comes in for a good time, loving reassessments that are 9 part reassessments, 10 parts dis, and 1 part love.

The reviews are all funny and they are great at pointing the less than savory or sensical aspects of the movies (I particularly felt pause at her take down of American Pie, which has SO MANY PROBLEMS guys). That said, in the aggregate the reviews are less funny than oppressive and a bit of a chore. I can see how these would have been hilarious in their original setting in an alt-newspaper, published a week at a time. All together, however, their humor and impact just sort of blends together.

In recent years, shitting on Love, Actually has become as much of a hallowed holiday tradition as actually watching it, for good reason. It’s a hymn to workplace sexual harassment, a symphony of fat-shaming, whose most famous, most copied scene is a white man acting silently stalkerish towards his best friend’s wife with the help of cue cards. Lindy West started that tradition. “This is a movie made for women by a man,” West writes in Shit, Actually, a collection of essays inspired by a series of movie re-watches the journalist and author of Shrill wrote about for Jezebel. “Thank you for telling a generation of men that their intrusiveness and obsessions are ‘romantic,’ and that women are secretly flattered no matter what their body language (or mouth!) says."

We may not remember the late ‘80s and ‘90s as a Golden Age of cinema, but they’ve left an indelible mark on pop culture, for better and for worse. West re-examines 23 cultural touchstones of the era from the perspective of post-#MeToo, post-recession, pandemic-ravaged America. “Watching Titanic for a third time for the purposes of this essay . . . I could not wait to get to the second half and watch all these motherfuckers drown,” she confesses. Along the way, West points out now-glaring plot holes (she titles the Harry Potter chapter “Harry Plot Hole”), now-famous faces (Jim Parsons was in Garden State?), and movies that would fail the Bechdel test (“In 1993 it was still okay to make movies all about men”) or basic diversity training. “Yeah, there are technically black characters in Harry Potter, but tell me one thing about Dean Thomas.”

“What do we do now with beloved cultural works that don’t hold up?” West asks in the introduction. “Are we ‘allowed’ to like imperfect things that mean something to us?” They’re good questions, but she’s not really interested in answering them, or attempting any kind of serious cultural analysis. Instead, she delivers snarky, sometimes silly recaps as she rates films like Twilight, Forrest Gump, Jurassic Park, American Pie, and The Notebook on a scale of 1 to The Fugitive (the subject of the first chapter, titled “The Fugitive Is The Only Good Movie”). I watched The Fugitive recently. It totally holds up. It’s even better than you remember.

But not even The Fugitive escapes West’s snark. The film’s jailbreak scene “features all four types of prisoners: spooky white guy, great big black guy, Latino guy, and Richard Kimble.” Harrison Ford’s wrongly accused doctor out for revenge hits different in the Trump era. (“Crashing a pharmaceutical gala when you are fugitive drenched in blood? This movie is from 1993, but that’s a 2020 mood.”) So does the coolly competent U.S. Marshal played by Tommy Lee Jones. “You know where nobody is ever competent or assembles an incredible team, which they lead with a just, firm, fatherly hand?” West asks. “Real life! Which makes this basically sci-fi.”......

I’m relatively new to Lindy West’s work, although I’ve been aware of it for some time. I thoroughly (enjoyed isn’t the right word) appreciated The Witches Are Coming and so grabbed this one up immediately after. And this one I thoroughly enjoyed. She ticks many boxes for me: Snark? Check. Pop culture love? Check. LOLs. Check. It was like movie chats I’ve had with friends, If those chats were packed with nonstop snappy hilarity. Highly recommended for movie buffs and people who love to laugh.

If you’re a 1980-1990s movie buff at all, I think you’ll enjoy this book. Right off the bat, I knew I was not the intended audience for this essay collection because I don’t watch movies. And even when I do, I don’t remember them.

Because I’ve been a die hard fan of Harry Potter, I could relate to the essay, Harry Plot Hole, and boy did Lindy West bring up things I never even thought about! Things that should have been more than obvious and that drove my crazy just like they do West. The essay on Forrest Gump, Dude, You Gotta Stop Listening To Your Mom, was also good and I appreciate the way West refers to Jenny as Jennay throughout.

I love Lindy West and her books are always a favorite to listen to on audiobook. As mentioned above, if you’re into movies at all, you’ll enjoy her take on them!

Lindy West’s newest collection of essays, “Shit, Actually”, is hilarious and wonderful. It both pays homage to and eviscerates 2 dozen movies you either love to love or love to hate.

West’s utter earnestness toward her task makes this book the masterpiece it is. Some movies she watched for the first time (Terminator 2) and some she re-watched with fresh eyes (Reality Bites). It’s a mix of nostalgia and a 2020 survey of the past, reevaluating the movies she grew up on.

Shit, Actually is a lovely companion guide to pandemic life, since much of the book was written during 2020. We’ve all watched a ton of movies and tv shows while staying home right?

The movies are rated on a scale of 1-10 DVDs of The Fugitive. As she argues in her first essay, “The Fugitive is the only good movie,” and warrants 13/10 Fugitive DVDs.

Some of my favorite chapters were Top Gun (I basically laugh/read the whole chapter to my husband), Face Off, The Rock and her deep love for Rush Hour, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

I peer pressured my husband into listening to the audio of this and his reaction confirms this book is the gem I think it is. We all need a good laugh and West comes through.

This was my first Lindy West book...and I have to say...it probably won't be the last! I laughed out loud a LOT while reading this...because, you know...the observations are 100% on point haha! I thought my snark game was strong, but Lindy takes it to the next level. I'll definitely recommend this one to my fellow movie lovers who can take beloved films and call them out for what's actually wrong about them. Here's hoping there's a sequel...with allllll the John Hughes movies as targets!

I have seen very few of the movies written about in this book, but that didn't keep me from laughing at every one of Lindy's descriptions. I also appreciated how on-the-nose her comments were about the inherent sexism in these films. Come for the laughs, stay for the social commentary.

I love a good pop culture critique book and Lindy West nailed it with Shit, Actually. This book is the perfect blend of nostalgia, snark, and lolz! I'm a huge fan of West's writing and previous books but somehow missed that she got her start as a movie critic. I've only seen about two-thirds of the movies West tackles in the book, but the films I haven't seen were still just as enjoyable as the ones I had. A bit of a departure and more lighthearted than her previous books, but still bitingly funny, a tad political (it is a Lindy West book after all!), and just what I needed to read right now!

I desperately needed this book. I cannot adequately describe to you how much I needed this book right now, today, Election Day in the US. If you are American or live in a country even vaguely American-adjacent (that’s gotta be most of you, sry), you are probably also very anxious today. You may have even been anxious for many days, weeks, months—maybe years (four, exactly?? Who knows!).

I am right there with you friends. And if you are trying to quiet that sense of impending doom for exactly the amount of time it takes you to read 272 pages of a book, I can not recommend Lindy West’s Shit, Actually enough. I have been milking it for over a week, trying to retain my sanity, and it has mostly worked! In her first book, Shrill, West discussed her life, feminism, body-shaming and other topics that were Big News in May 2016 when the book came out. (ha! haha!! it all seems so quaint now~~) Then in her follow-up The Witches Are Coming, West went even more overtly into the politics of Trumpism, racism, sexism and All The Other Bad Things, in her signature comedic way.

While these were the books I needed at the time, I think most of us are just trying to drag our limp, half-comatose bodies over the finish line today. For that reason, Shit, Actually is the perfect book for right now. Why? Because it’s about MOVIES! It’s funny! It’s written by someone smart and hilarious who has *strong* opinions about things that don’t *matter*. Here is a book where I can get in a heated comments section argument with someone about Bad Boys II and everything is still OKAY afterwards. I’ve been desperately craving something and it turns out that something is someone explaining to me with excessive punctuation why all popular Bro Movies™ are trash! And by god, Lindy West delivers.

In conclusion, I am completely in love with Lindy West. This is the perfect book and you all should write it in for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the Humor category! I’m allowed to campaign here, I’m at least 100 feet away from the polling location!!! (election day joke) Unfortunately, I guess Ms. West felt like she adequately roasted Adam Sandler in her other works, so there was no further commentary on his movies. :( Dear Lindy or Lindy’s publisher, if you’re reading this, please let her know that she can never write too much about Adam Sandler! There is no ceiling on the number of times you can dunk on him!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Books for the free ARC of this amazing book. Lindy West is one of my favorite authors and she cracks me up. I was so excited to read her take on some modern classic films and I definitely gained some new feminist perspective on some. I honestly was actually LOLing for all of this book. The Love Actually, The Notebook and Harry Potter essays were probably my favorite. I also found some movies I hadn't planned on seeing (like The Fugitive) that I will definitely be checking out... and some like Forest Gump that I feel like I really don't need to see. Thank you, Lindy, for providing some much needed Covid laughs.

Really lovely book of essays. If you aren't familiar with the movies, they can be hard to relate to. But if you have seen them, they are a riot! Quick, fun read.

I knew I probably wouldn’t know all of the movies discussed in this book, but it was very disappointing that I only knew maybe 4 or 5. I felt like I was left just outside the joke with this book. I appreciated the humor, but without having watched the movie, it felt pretty meaningless to me.

I wasn’t a fan of the fact that Happy Potter was included. I also felt there were a few too many jokes about prisons and putting things/people in jail. I read the e-arc, so perhaps these were changed/omitted prior to publication?

Overall, this book wasn’t my cup of tea, but if you’ve seen all the movies, maybe you’d enjoy it more.

This book has all of the Lindy West flavor well also being a very specific subject matter that I know almost nothing about. Even though I’m a child of the 90s and had basic television channel specifically TBS — very funny — I have not seen quite a few of these movies. Out of them, I watched The Fugitive (A+++) and most of Rush Hour (a classic). I’ve seen: The Notebook once and I think that’s enough, Love Actually a few christmases ago, Honey I... like 15 years ago, Titanic, I’ve been on the Terminator ride at Universal so I think I get the idea of that one, Garden State and Twilight. I’ll watch Top Gun, Back to the Future and The Rock at some point, but reading the essays was excellent with the little pop culture context I had. This book is a very smooth and easy read, I just got busy.

Honestly, this book really sells these movies for me. I’ve never wanted to watch Twilight more in my life.

I used to be a manager at Blockbuster Video. I am a huge film buff and when I saw My Friend, Roma's Review I just had to have this book. This book was a joy to read, funny, sarcastic and even though I don't agree with all her "reviews/opinions" I still found it wonderfully entertaining and was laughing A LOT.

Ms. West's insightful, witty prose takes us to a great many reviews of pop culture favourites. As I mentioned before I'm a movie buff myself and have watched a large portion of the movies she mentions here and I have to say she does write better than any movie critic that I have ever read. Therefore I give it four stars.

I am a huge fan of Lindy West. Shrill, The Witches Are Coming? Yes, please! Unlike West’s previous publications, Shit, Actually is meant for humor and entertainment only. However, like West’s work, it is a commentary on misogyny, homophobia, and sexism in our culture. In Shit, Actually she does this with a sharp comedic edge as she provides commentary on our favorite 90’s flicks.

West provides her own review and commentary on some popular movies of the 90’s, using her own rating scale, which is out of 10 DVD’s of The Fugitive. The Fugitive scored 13/10 DVD’s of The Fugitive, so that’s where we start, lol. Each chapter includes a synopsis, her commentary/review, and a rating for a different movie.

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙙:
1. As a movie buff and the fact that I grew up in the 90’s, this book was written for me. It was hilarious, and ridiculous, and a perfect read for these quaran-times.
2. Though the point of it is to be humorous, West points out some ridiculously sexist and homophobic plot points where women and queer people were used as punchlines... and it was just accepted back then. Things that would not fly in movies made today.

The only drawback this book has is that the reader would really need to have watched the movies in order to get all the jokes. Personally, West is so funny I think it wouldn’t matter. But still, some people might not be invested into every chapter.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Books for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

One of the things I miss during this pandemic is just getting some friends around a table for a few hours and ask the drinks flow we start discussing movies we've seen and the hilarious plot holes of movies from our youth. This book is that conversation.

Sure, many of us have read West's fantastic essay on the absurdity of Love, Actually (I love both the essay and the movie, both are perfect), and it is still a shining jewel in this book, but I was happy to get her takes on other movies that, in retrospect, are filled with absurd logic jumps and bizarre situations that we all took as normal. Not every essay is 10/10 Fugitive DVDs. There were several where I felt like West was reaching to fill the book. But many were laugh out loud funny and delightfully insightful.

West truly succeeds when she covers seminal movies from our teenage or college years, and I say "our" because she and I are a similar age and that might be why her thoughts and reflections felt so comfy and wonderful: we both watched these movies at similar points in our lives. In particular, I loved her chapter on Reality Bites. This movie was huge for so many of us in Gen X and she completely gets it: we all should want to be Vicki and Trey is the worst. Amen.

This book made me miss seeing my friends in person, but made me want to rewatch some 90s classics with a new point of view and plenty of snark.

Shit, Actually is definitely a departure from West's more political commentary featured in Shrill and The Witches are Coming, but if you liked the lighter essays in those and jive with West's humor, this collection is likely to be a stand out. I'm not familiar with all of the movies discussed in this collection, in fact, I've seen only three or four, but I was laughing so hard. I actually called my dad in the middle of the essay on Top Gun to tell him that he needs to give this one a try.

I think, for me, the chapters that worked the best for me were ones where I was familiar with the property being discussed even if I hadn't seen it. It also helps that when she criticized one of my favorite movies, Love, Actually, I agreed with all of her criticisms, I just still like it. I was hoping based on the introduction that there would be a little more emphasis on loving something while recognizing its flaws and I think we got some of that, I just wanted more. In one chapter about a movie I've not seen and can't remember the title of, West talks about how in the wake of #MeToo, watching this particular movie seems fraught. I liked the way she walked through all of her thoughts about why she was still including the movie in the book because I think this is something we, as consumers of media of all types, have to contend with more and more frequently. Anyway, I do think that I want to return to this book as I watch more of these movies so I can understand even more of the jokes and laugh even more. I also think there are certain chapters in here that are likely to wind up being comfort re-listens because it was really great fun in a time where fun can be hard to come by.

Despite having an advanced e-copy through Netgalley, I wound up getting the audiobook and listening to it instead. I have listened to both of West's other collections via audio so I was pretty sure my reading experience would be really fantastic if I listened and it was. My sister says the audiobook sounds like a podcast and it really does. Since West narrates it herself, it also feels like laughing with a friend a lot of the time. If you think your sense of humor and West's mostly align and you like pop culture critique, I would suggest giving this one a shot!

I have to say I enjoyed the style of writing and satire in this book. I listened to it on audiobook and loved that Lindy West, the author narrated it herself. I give this book a 3.5 stars. It is a book telling the plot lines of 90's/2000/s popular movies in a hysterically funny way. My only problem is I am not a huge movie buff so I had not watched all the movies and got a bit bored with the book.....but honestly is is so well written that if you are a movie fan you should read/listen to this book. I have to say that Lindy West is dead on with these movies and she made me bust a gut laughing at the movies I had watched especially American Pie.