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A review by theladyinreds
My Year of Flops: The A.V. Club Presents One Man's Journey Deep Into the Heart of Cinematic Failure by Nathan Rabin
2.0
I put this on my Christmas wishlist because I���m a fan of the A. V. Cub website and had enjoyed the handful of ���My Year Of Flops��� entries I had read on-line. As such, I really wanted to like this book, and I really kind of hated it.
The ridiculously long preambles? Hated them. After a few essays, I couldn���t help screaming ���What the hell is this movie about? When was it made? And who the hell is in it?��� because I usually didn���t have any answers to these things until 5-10 paragraphs into the essays.
I didn���t laugh at the jokes. I didn���t find them funny. I often found them mean. And I can���t say I cared much for the profanity and off-color commentary either.
As critical essays, I didn���t think they worked well either. The set-up of what the movie was about, when it was made, and who the principal players involved were often incredibly confusing. The tangents were also incredibly frequent and of unbelievable length.
In the afterword, the author writes that ���I began My Year Of Flops not to bury cinematic failures but to praise them. I have strayed early and often from that mission, yet I���ve tried my damnest to live up to the good intentions I laid out in my introduction.��� See, I didn���t pick up on hardly any of that intended affection for these movies. I really wish I had, because that���s what I was interested in reading, but I just didn���t see it there.
To borrow the author���s own rating scale, I���m going to call this one a failure I wish had been a secret success.
The ridiculously long preambles? Hated them. After a few essays, I couldn���t help screaming ���What the hell is this movie about? When was it made? And who the hell is in it?��� because I usually didn���t have any answers to these things until 5-10 paragraphs into the essays.
I didn���t laugh at the jokes. I didn���t find them funny. I often found them mean. And I can���t say I cared much for the profanity and off-color commentary either.
As critical essays, I didn���t think they worked well either. The set-up of what the movie was about, when it was made, and who the principal players involved were often incredibly confusing. The tangents were also incredibly frequent and of unbelievable length.
In the afterword, the author writes that ���I began My Year Of Flops not to bury cinematic failures but to praise them. I have strayed early and often from that mission, yet I���ve tried my damnest to live up to the good intentions I laid out in my introduction.��� See, I didn���t pick up on hardly any of that intended affection for these movies. I really wish I had, because that���s what I was interested in reading, but I just didn���t see it there.
To borrow the author���s own rating scale, I���m going to call this one a failure I wish had been a secret success.