Art Linson

A fun diversion that sheds some cynical light on Hollywood, revealing just how much it's all about business more than art. Two of my favourite movies are mentioned in here (Fight Club and Heat.) It is disturbing to read how many people lost their jobs as a result of Fight Club.

I didn't care so much for the cafe conversations with Jerry that frame the memoir but overall I enjoyed this enough that I might chase down Linson's other book, A Pound of Flesh.

Stories from a movie producer Things in Hollywood get weird fast. Linson shows, for one thing, how hard it is to estimate if a movie will be successful. Putting together the right combination of writers, directors, actors, etc. is an art, and art and business don't mix well, which is why the whole business is enough to drive a nice producer to drink or worse.

A book in which we find out that Alec Baldwin doesn't like to shave his beard when worried he's too heavy and Robert De Niro likes to show more do readings. show less

I didn't finish this book. I was just so furious with it. The writing isn't just bad and annoying, it's absolutely appalling. I'ts like an old guy using his grandchildren's slang, a wine snob describing a vintage, a rap artist that's-what-I'm fuckin'-sayin' at the end of every phrase, know what I mean, like. Just shut up, stop trying to sound cool and tell the story.

I have no idea if the book is any good or not and I really couldn't care less. If a book can't hook me in fifty pages it's show more failed in its contract with the reader and I want my money back! Although in this case, since I only paid $1.50 for it (and free postage) and it is exactly the right size for propping up my porch table, I won't be making any claims. show less