Added on 02/03/07

For a full dose of pure, unfiltered Joan Crawford, look no further than this slab of scorching film noir. Crawford is in her element as the heroine of James M. Cain's pulp-fiction classic, a ditched wife and mother who is forced to become a waitress.... See more

For a full dose of pure, unfiltered Joan Crawford, look no further than this slab of scorching film noir. Crawford is in her element as the heroine of James M. Cain's pulp-fiction classic, a ditched wife and mother who is forced to become a waitress. On the strength of Crawford's steely willpower (and maybe those intimidating wide-wing shoulder pads), she constructs an empire of eateries, only to be disappointed by her rotten daughter (Ann Blyth) and a ferret-faced new husband (Zachary Scott). Director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) whips up a storm of atmosphere, and the script is a series of tartly written exchanges. The best lines go to perennial wisecracker Eve Arden, as Crawford's acid-tongued pal--she earned her only Oscar nomination for the role. Commenting on the ungrateful daughter, Arden says, "Alligators have the right idea. They eat their young." Crawford herself took home the best actress Oscar, and the film was a triumphant personal comeback: her longtime studio MGM had... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Asian American director Ang Lee sums up America in the early 1970s by focusing on the arrival of the sexual revolution in the 'burbs. Isolationism within a family, consumerism, and selfishness are personified by a cast that captures the... See more

Asian American director Ang Lee sums up America in the early 1970s by focusing on the arrival of the sexual revolution in the 'burbs. Isolationism within a family, consumerism, and selfishness are personified by a cast that captures the self-obsession within two New England families. As the children struggle awkwardly with adolescence, their parents stumble through sexual experimentation. In the days of Watergate and Vietnam, society is breaking boundaries and ignoring convention. Following suit, these families are eschewing polite barriers and social taboos, with disastrous results. The "ice storm" of the title refers not only to a natural phenomenon but is a (rather heavy-handed) metaphor for a pervasive emotional temperament. The entire cast delivers textured, finely nuanced performances. This movie lingers in the psyche not only for the scope of the tragedy at its conclusion, but for Lee's often humorous and stingingly accurate assessment of pop culture. Based on Rick Moody's... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Roger and Me is a loose, smart-alecky documentary directed and narrated by Michael Moore, an everyman host with a devastating wit and a working-class pose. When his hometown is devastated by the plant closure of an American corporate giant (making... See more

Roger and Me is a loose, smart-alecky documentary directed and narrated by Michael Moore, an everyman host with a devastating wit and a working-class pose. When his hometown is devastated by the plant closure of an American corporate giant (making record profits, one should note), the hell-raising political commentator with a prankster streak tries to turn his camera on General Motors Chairman Roger B. Smith, the elusive Roger of the title, and the film is loosely structured around Moore's odyssey to track down the corporate giant for an interview. While Moore ambushes his corporate subjects like a blue-collar Geraldo Rivera, a guerrilla interviewer who treasures his comic rebuffs as much as his interviews, his portraits of the colorful characters he meets along the way can be patronizing. The famous come off as absurdly out of touch (Anita Bryant appears for some can-do cheerleading, and hometown celebrity Bob Eubanks tells some boorish jokes), and the disenfranchised poor (notably... See less

Added on 02/03/07

In the tradition of such obsessively driven directors as Erich von Stroheim and Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola approached the production of Apocalypse Now as if it were his own epic mission into the heart of darkness. On location in the... See more

In the tradition of such obsessively driven directors as Erich von Stroheim and Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola approached the production of Apocalypse Now as if it were his own epic mission into the heart of darkness. On location in the storm-ravaged Philippines, he quite literally went mad as the project threatened to devour him in a vortex of creative despair, but from this insanity came one of the greatest films ever made. It began as a John Milius screenplay, transposing Joseph Conrad's classic story "Heart of Darkness" into the horrors of the Vietnam War, following a battle-weary Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) on a secret upriver mission to find and execute the renegade Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reverted to a state of murderous and mystical insanity. The journey is fraught with danger involving wartime action on epic and intimate scales. One measure of the film's awesome visceral impact is the number of sequences, images, and lines of dialogue that have literally... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Rising to the challenge of Dogma 95's self-imposed restrictions on aesthetic freedom, Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration is a remarkable example of the way limits can give rise to creative opportunity. (Dogma 95 is a Danish filmmakers collective... See more

Rising to the challenge of Dogma 95's self-imposed restrictions on aesthetic freedom, Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration is a remarkable example of the way limits can give rise to creative opportunity. (Dogma 95 is a Danish filmmakers collective that also includes Lars von Trier, director of Breaking the Waves. The group crafted a manifesto in which its members vow to eschew special lighting, optical effects, props, and the visible imprint of a director's personality in order to attain higher truths yielded by characters.) The Celebration, shot with a small video camera and transferred to 35mm film, concerns a black-tie birthday gathering for a family patriarch, Helge (Henning Moritzen), which erodes into a battle after long-suppressed secrets are revealed and the chance to settle old scores presents itself. Among the grievances are an accusation of incest and the responsibility for the death of a child--gruesome stuff, but Vinterberg doesn't characterize the partying... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Few directors polarize audiences like Peter Greenaway, a filmmaker as influenced by Jacobean revenge tragedy and 17th century painting as by the French New Wave. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is both adored and detested for its... See more

Few directors polarize audiences like Peter Greenaway, a filmmaker as influenced by Jacobean revenge tragedy and 17th century painting as by the French New Wave. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is both adored and detested for its combination of sumptuous beauty and revolting decadence. A vile, gluttonous thief (Michael Gambon, The Singing Detective) spews hate and abuse at a restaurant run by a stoic French cook (Richard Bohringer, Diva), but under the thief's nose his wife (the ever-sensuous Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect) conducts an affair with a bookish lover (Alan Howard, Strapless). Clothing (by avant-garde designer Jean-Paul Gaultier) changes color as the characters move from room to room. Nudity, torture, rotting meat, and Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs) at his sleaziest all contribute the atmosphere of decay and excess. Not for everyone, but for some, essential. --Bret Fetzer See less

Added on 02/03/07

Watching Pryor go from imitating a drinking deer to a woman debating about going in the woods gives just a hint of the comedic genius of the man. Crude, foul, and real, this is the first and best of his concert films. Pryor does dead-on... See more

Watching Pryor go from imitating a drinking deer to a woman debating about going in the woods gives just a hint of the comedic genius of the man. Crude, foul, and real, this is the first and best of his concert films. Pryor does dead-on impersonations of the respective races, cussing, trying to act tough, getting kicked in personal spots. But it's his imagination that elevates him to a different level. He gives his impressions of what animals think, from his own animals (a monkey, a Doberman) to police dogs, and it seems so exact, so prescient. Not to mention the fact that he is self-deprecating in the extreme, and has as much fun skewering himself as any other subject. Still vibrant, still funny. --Keith Simanton See less

Added on 02/03/07

François Girard originally conceived 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould as a biography to try to explain the bizarre genius of the master pianist who stopped touring in 1963 at the height of his success. The 32 parts play out key moments of Gould's... See more

François Girard originally conceived 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould as a biography to try to explain the bizarre genius of the master pianist who stopped touring in 1963 at the height of his success. The 32 parts play out key moments of Gould's life without stringing them together. They go from realistic (a scene in a Hamburg hotel in which Gould turns a maid on to the wonder of music) to nihilistic (a segment solely made up of the drugs Gould presumably took). Stratford actor Colm Feore is quite good as the slyly introverted, soft-spoken figure, although this film is more of an examination of loneliness than of music. The key question is, Does this docudrama enlighten us better than a straightforward documentary on Gould would? Probably not. --Doug Thomas See less

Added on 02/03/07

What would the average sensible American do if he encountered a pulsing ball of protoplasm from outer space? That's right: he'd poke it with a stick. Thus begins the endearingly earnest and silly tale of The Blob. Young Steve McQueen takes on his... See more

What would the average sensible American do if he encountered a pulsing ball of protoplasm from outer space? That's right: he'd poke it with a stick. Thus begins the endearingly earnest and silly tale of The Blob. Young Steve McQueen takes on his first leading role as, um, Steve, a spunky teenager with plenty of heart. Steve sees the blob kill the local doc, but darn it, none of the town's adults will believe him! Yup, it's up to the teens to save the day! Steve and his trusty girlfriend Jane break their curfews(!) and head off into the night to find the Blob and warn the town. The Blob is a completely enjoyable watch from start to finish, offering the triple pleasures of 1950s morals, gee-whiz acting, and a whole lotta extras running around and screaming. The special effects, though primitive, certainly get the job done, and it is still a treat to watch the Blob ooze its way to its next meal. You may notice that the theme song is surprisingly bouncy for a horror flick... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Episodes: "Time Enough at Last" (Ep. 8, November 20, 1959) - A bookworm (Burgess Meredith) yearns for more time to read--then a nuclear holocaust leaves him alone in the world with lots of time, plenty to read, and one ironic twist! "The Monsters are... See more

Episodes: "Time Enough at Last" (Ep. 8, November 20, 1959) - A bookworm (Burgess Meredith) yearns for more time to read--then a nuclear holocaust leaves him alone in the world with lots of time, plenty to read, and one ironic twist! "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" (Ep. 22, March 4, 1960) - Inexplicable events cause the residents of quiet Maple Street to erupt into rioting. The residents suspect an alien invasion has occurred. If so, where are the alien monsters? "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (Ep. 123, October 11, 1963) - A salesman (William Shatner) recovering from a nervous breakdown spots a gremlin on the wing of his plane. When he attempts to alert the others, his nightmare truly begins! "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (Ep. 54, February 24, 1961) - Flight 33 picks up a peculiar tailwind and is blown off course. After apparently correcting the problem, the flight arrives at its destination--a billion years ahead of schedule! See less

Added on 02/03/07

The audacious concert film Eddie Murphy Raw rubbed some people the wrong way upon its release in 1987, but there's no denying that between Murphy's more insensitive bits about women and gay men is some of his most inspired material. While the young... See more

The audacious concert film Eddie Murphy Raw rubbed some people the wrong way upon its release in 1987, but there's no denying that between Murphy's more insensitive bits about women and gay men is some of his most inspired material. While the young comedian indulges an unattractive homophobia and rants about the sexual manipulativeness of all females, he makes up for it with an amazing story about being chided by Bill Cosby for obscene humor and does a great impression of Mr. T falling under the spell of a Jedi mind trick. The best stuff comes deep into the show, particularly a long tale of being pressured into a fight at a club, resulting in a phone call to Murphy's drunk father, the latter in the middle of a verbal attack on his wife. The scene is genuinely horrifying and funny, testament to Murphy's early reputation as heir to Richard Pryor's mercilessly autobiographical brilliance. --Tom Keogh See less

Added on 02/03/07

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Added on 02/03/07

One can't help but feel both elated and sad when listening to this colossal overview of Richard Pryor's recorded work. Multiple sclerosis has silenced the greatest humorist of his generation, and that's tragic for Pryor. But it's also a heartbreaking... See more

One can't help but feel both elated and sad when listening to this colossal overview of Richard Pryor's recorded work. Multiple sclerosis has silenced the greatest humorist of his generation, and that's tragic for Pryor. But it's also a heartbreaking loss for comedy, for, as these discs amply illustrate, the man who exploded the parameters of stage comedy in the '70s could have taken it in wild new directions. As it was, Pryor fleshed out Lenny Bruce's commitment to brutal honesty--and with a keener acting ability. This nine-CD set includes the comic's seven Warner Bros. LPs, plus a disc of previously unissued material and a rare 25-minute interview from 1983. Listening to the likes of 1974's That Nigger's Crazy and 1978's Live in Concert, it's obvious that while the man shaped comedy for decades to come, very few of those who've followed in his footsteps have anything near the talent, fearlessness, wisdom, or insight that Pryor possessed. Or the pain, for that matter. But as Pryor... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Pam Grier in a women-in-prison movie? Why did no one think of this sooner? OK, they did. Several times. But this one is different. Black Mama, White Mama is a bizarre update of The Defiant Ones with a little Cool Hand Luke and Chained Heat thrown in... See more

Pam Grier in a women-in-prison movie? Why did no one think of this sooner? OK, they did. Several times. But this one is different. Black Mama, White Mama is a bizarre update of The Defiant Ones with a little Cool Hand Luke and Chained Heat thrown in for good measure. Grier stars as Lee Daniels, a pimp-and-drug-lord's moll who's looking for a way to escape both prison and her thug boyfriend. The dynamic Margaret Markov ably backs her as rich-girl-turned-revolutionary Karen Brent. The two meet in the friendliest Third World prison ever (Tickling games in the shower! What girlish fun!), and before you can say catfight they're chained together at the wrist. A quick prison break later, our feisty ladies are being chased all over the undefined tropical island by the police, revolutionaries, and dueling pimps. Director Jonathan Demme shares the story credit for this one, and his craftsmanship shows--Black Mama, White Mama hits every mandatory facet of the genre, including butt kicking,... See less

Added on 02/03/07

The pinnacle of blaxploitation movies, the 1972 Superfly stars Ron O'Neal as a drug dealer who wants out of the business but decides to take out some enemies in the process. With its criminal hero, one might almost think this could be an existential... See more

The pinnacle of blaxploitation movies, the 1972 Superfly stars Ron O'Neal as a drug dealer who wants out of the business but decides to take out some enemies in the process. With its criminal hero, one might almost think this could be an existential crime movie, but no...it's really just an effective piece of pulp with a strong performance by O'Neal, grim settings, cool direction by Gordon Parks Jr., and a famous soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield. --Tom Keogh See less

Added on 02/03/07

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Added on 02/03/07

Lucio "King of the Eyeball Gag" Fulci made his name with a series of gory, gooey horror epics, and The Beyond stands above all as his outré masterpiece. The largely incoherent plot has something to do with a turn-of-the-century curse and a doorway... See more

Lucio "King of the Eyeball Gag" Fulci made his name with a series of gory, gooey horror epics, and The Beyond stands above all as his outré masterpiece. The largely incoherent plot has something to do with a turn-of-the-century curse and a doorway to hell in the cellar of an old New Orleans hotel. Fulci shows his usual sensitivity with wooden acting, clumsy dialogue, and buckets of oozing blood and pus, but don't let that get in the way of enjoying this mad tale of zombies from hell invading Earth and eating their way through a cast of humans: crucified martyrs, blind visionaries, creepy hotel handymen, befuddled cops, and a plucky pair of heroes desperately fleeing a horde of hungry undead. The blood-red art direction is eerily beautiful, and Fulci's relentless long takes, punctuated by jolting shock cuts and eruptions of grotesque violence, create a mood of sheer paranoid horror right down to the final, mind-bending image. And don't forget the Fulci claim to fame: eyes are... See less

Added on 02/03/07

What is junior high school but a strange, disorienting pastiche of black comedy, tragedy, soap opera, and (most of all) horror movie? Well, that pretty much describes Todd Solondz's astonishingly honest and clear-sighted film, Welcome to the... See more

What is junior high school but a strange, disorienting pastiche of black comedy, tragedy, soap opera, and (most of all) horror movie? Well, that pretty much describes Todd Solondz's astonishingly honest and clear-sighted film, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Like Solondz's even more controversial follow-up--the acclaimed and despised Happiness (1998)--Dollhouse unflinchingly looks deep into its characters' souls (and their embarrassing desires, and their floundering sexuality) in ways that can be simultaneously disturbing and liberating, appalling and hilarious. Dawn Wiener (Heather Matarazzo) is a hapless seventh-grade geek whose cruel and contemptuous schoolmates have nicknamed her (what else?) "Wiener Dog." Everything about Dawn is so awkward--the way she looks, talks, moves--that it's no wonder other kids dump on her. They're most likely so insecure about themselves that they're terrified of the Wiener Dog they know lurks somewhere down inside themselves, too. So, the best social and... See less

Added on 02/03/07

While too many movies suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, Being John Malkovich is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for... See more

While too many movies suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, Being John Malkovich is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for restoring your faith in the enchantment of film. Even if it ultimately serves little purpose beyond the thrill of comedic invention, this demented romance is gloriously entertaining, spilling over with ideas that tickle the brain and even touch the heart. That's to be expected in a movie that dares to ponder the existential dilemma of a forlorn puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a metaphysical portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The puppeteer's working as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a Manhattan office building; this idea alone might serve as the comedic basis for an entire film, but Jonze and Kaufman are just getting started. Add a devious coworker (Catherine Keener), Cusack's dowdy wife (a barely... See less

Added on 02/03/07

A much-loved cult favorite often overlooked by the mainstream, Trust is a hip, witty film that stretches the definition of a "romantic comedy." Hal Hartley's quirky, minimalist masterpiece--miles ahead of such later attempts as Amateur and Henry... See more

A much-loved cult favorite often overlooked by the mainstream, Trust is a hip, witty film that stretches the definition of a "romantic comedy." Hal Hartley's quirky, minimalist masterpiece--miles ahead of such later attempts as Amateur and Henry Fool--comes from the same school of offbeat character studies that launched better-known directors Jonathan Demme (Married to the Mob, Silence of the Lambs) and Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, The Last Days of Disco). Trust, like more conventional romances, tells the story of a blossoming relationship between two souls who are lost without each other--but the resemblance to ordinary love stories ends there. Matthew Slaughter (The Opposite of Sex's Martin Donovan) is a lovable, overeducated misanthrope (he always carries a hand grenade, as he says, "just in case..."). He's matched brilliantly with spoiled ex-cheerleader Maria Coughlin (Adrienne Shelly), a pregnant high-school dropout going through a full-blown existential crisis, largely because... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Here restored at last are nearly 100 pages of text cut from the 1995 and later U.S. editions of "Youth in Revolt." Each passage is keyed to the page from which it was deleted for ease in reading. Now you can discover what happening to Lefty in Book... See more

Here restored at last are nearly 100 pages of text cut from the 1995 and later U.S. editions of "Youth in Revolt." Each passage is keyed to the page from which it was deleted for ease in reading. Now you can discover what happening to Lefty in Book II. Did Millie Filbert try to seduce Nick? Who ratted on Nick to the police to collect the reward? And more--a must read for Nick Twisp fans! Also collected here are a dozen short humor pieces by C.D. Payne. See less

Added on 02/03/07

Nick Twisp is back! America's most literate teen diarist returns with more riotous adventures through the land mines of 21st century adolescence. This sequel to C.D. Payne's acclaimed first novel "Youth in Revolt" finds love-struck Nick Twisp still... See more

Nick Twisp is back! America's most literate teen diarist returns with more riotous adventures through the land mines of 21st century adolescence. This sequel to C.D. Payne's acclaimed first novel "Youth in Revolt" finds love-struck Nick Twisp still on the lam from the law and his parents. Our 14-year-old hero (and his multiplying alter egos) now must battle blizzards, back-stabbing aliens, vengeful parents, and school officials determined to schedule him into girls' gym. He conspires to play cupid, journeys south of the border on a secret mission, takes some gunplay lessons from his distraught mom, and still finds time to confide all to his diary while inadvertently wreaking havoc in cyberspace. A must-read for Nick Twisp fans. See less

Added on 02/03/07

Sennheiser engineers are renowned for their striving to create the very best technical solution. You can be sure to get reliable high quality products, plus Sennheiser know-how and experience.The HD 433 is an open hi-fi stereo headphone that can be... See more

Sennheiser engineers are renowned for their striving to create the very best technical solution. You can be sure to get reliable high quality products, plus Sennheiser know-how and experience.The HD 433 is an open hi-fi stereo headphone that can be connected to both hi-fi systems and personal stereos (CDs, DATs, DCCs etc.). It provides excellent bass response and is ideal for rock and pop music. See less

Added on 02/03/07

Zip 100 drives work right along with you, matching your need for speed and providing a spacious, easily organized solution in the form of Zip 100MB disks. You can view these disks as your lifeline and insurance policy. Easy to duplicate and backup,... See more

Zip 100 drives work right along with you, matching your need for speed and providing a spacious, easily organized solution in the form of Zip 100MB disks. You can view these disks as your lifeline and insurance policy. Easy to duplicate and backup, rugged, reliable Zip disks can protect your data from hard drive crashes and even physical computer theft. On Zip disks you can build your personal library of downloaded software, personal and work projects, scanned images and scrapbook material, financial records, tax history, even your personal music selection-and rest easy knowing that your life is safe there. See less

Added on 02/03/07

You either love Russ Meyer's garishly sexist movies about bodacious babes and priapic men or you find them utterly disgusting. The response to his work is that clear-cut. This film, which features a screenplay by critic Roger Ebert, barely qualifies... See more

You either love Russ Meyer's garishly sexist movies about bodacious babes and priapic men or you find them utterly disgusting. The response to his work is that clear-cut. This film, which features a screenplay by critic Roger Ebert, barely qualifies as a sequel to the film based on Jacqueline Susann's trashy bestseller. Rather, it's a broad, trashy remake on its own terms about what happens to a trio of female rock musicians when they leave the Midwest and head for Hollywood. Sex, drugs, murder--the only thing it doesn't have is cannibalism, the gold standard when it comes to trashy entertainment. --Marshall Fine See less

Added on 02/03/07

Richard Linklater's debut feature is a comic kaleidoscopic portrait of the quirky characters stuck in a college town (it's Austin, Texas, but it could stand for hundreds of such places), a devilishly clever and endlessly inventive film that overcomes... See more

Richard Linklater's debut feature is a comic kaleidoscopic portrait of the quirky characters stuck in a college town (it's Austin, Texas, but it could stand for hundreds of such places), a devilishly clever and endlessly inventive film that overcomes its nothing budget with scene after hilarious scene of short, sharp cinematic shots. Structured something like Luis Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty, Slacker is a comic series of character pieces, each lasting a few minutes before the camera picks up and follows someone, perhaps simply an extra in the scene, to the next conversation. Characters spout off theories on everything from JFK and Charles Whitman (we even get an eerie glimpse of the water tower he climbed for his killing spree) to Elvis and UFOs, and more (wanna buy a Madonna pap smear?) on our bohemian tour of a condensed day-in-the-life. Linklater lets the characters set the pace but provides a loose, almost imperceptible rhythm to the film as a whole, giving a kind of structure... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Clever and original, this horror film directed by Steve Miner (Forever Young) stars Julian Sands as a 17th century warlock who escapes the gallows and is transported--along with the witch hunter who brought him to trial (Richard E. Grant)--300 years... See more

Clever and original, this horror film directed by Steve Miner (Forever Young) stars Julian Sands as a 17th century warlock who escapes the gallows and is transported--along with the witch hunter who brought him to trial (Richard E. Grant)--300 years into the future. Running loose in contemporary Los Angeles, Sands's supernatural monster sets about reuniting the scattered portions of a Devil's Book that will reveal the true name of God and thus destroy mankind. In a great twist, the last bit of the book is in a very interesting place: the grave of Grant's character, who has enlisted the aid of a woman (Lori Singer) in a hurried effort to stop imminent disaster. Genuinely involving, Warlock is aided immeasurably by sharp performances from the equally eccentric Grant (Withnail and I) and Sands (Naked Lunch). Miner invents his way through a kind of simultaneously new and old horror tale, and the results are taut, fun, and surprising. The DVD release features Spanish and French subtitles,... See less

Added on 02/03/07

Okay, so at least you're interested enough to pick up this book and look inside. I think you and I are going to get along just fine. Life is full of choices. Right now, yours is whether or not to buy the autobiography of a mid-grade, kind of hammy... See more

Okay, so at least you're interested enough to pick up this book and look inside. I think you and I are going to get along just fine. Life is full of choices. Right now, yours is whether or not to buy the autobiography of a mid-grade, kind of hammy actor. Am I supposed to know this guy? you think to yourself.No, and that's exactly the point. Bookstores are chock full of household name actors and their high stakes shenanigans. I don't want to be a spoilsport, but we've all been down that road before. Case in point: look to your left - see that Judy Garland book? You don't need that, you know plenty about her already - great voice, crappy life. Now look to your right at the Charlton Heston book. You don't need to cough up hard-earned dough for that either. You know his story too - great voice, crappy toupee. The truth is that though you might not have a clue who I am, there are countless working stiffs like me out there, grinding away every day at the wheel of fortune.If Chins Could Kill:... See less

Added on 02/03/07

The original Ritalin kid, Harmony Korine burst on the scene with Kids, a film so gritty and unsettling in its depiction of teen life that it was slapped with an NC-17 rating and banned in some theaters across the country. In some ways, the media... See more

The original Ritalin kid, Harmony Korine burst on the scene with Kids, a film so gritty and unsettling in its depiction of teen life that it was slapped with an NC-17 rating and banned in some theaters across the country. In some ways, the media frenzy over the rating overshadowed the harrowing portrait of teenagers destroying their lives and the then twenty-one-year-old screenwriter who created them. "Whether you see the movie as a masterpiece or as sensationalism," wrote Lynn Hirshberg, "the movie is relentless and brilliant and extremely disturbing. It's powerful-both steel-eyed and sexy; horrifying and captivating."Now, in this first book of fictional set pieces, Korine captures the fragmented moments of a life observed through the demented lens of media, TV, and teen obsession. Korine reinvents the novel in this highly experimental montage of scenes that seem both real and surreal at the same time. With a filmmaker's eye and a prankster's glee, this bizarre collection of jokes,... See less