Shea Serrano

First, the easy problem.

In college, I made the same terrible mistake three times: I confessed to a dude that I had not seen Pulp Fiction. Each time, I was assured that I HAD to see Pulp Fiction, and then, by way of proving it, the guy narrated his favorite scenes to me. At length. The kind of length where you could watch the scene five times, then come back to the table and the guy would still be narrating it.

(They were, let me note, always the same scenes.)

Movies (And Other Things) is the show more book version of those guys I knew in college. It’s basically like telling a guy you have not seen a whole, whole bunch of movies, and then he narrates his favorite scenes from all of them at you in excruciating detail, and in this case I’m not referring so much to the length as excruciating (Serrano is, unsurprisingly, a little more succinct than college boys in thrall to Tarantino and the sound of their own voices), but the specific details Serrano chooses.

Very, very many of his favorite scenes involve someone dying horribly. In fact, going by this book, a lot of his favorite movies are nothing BUT people dying horribly. Like, Serrano is a man who gives movies a lot of bonus points for really unusual and graphic deaths. Which would probably be fine with me if I were very into gore and death. But I’m not. I haven’t seen a lot of Serrano’s favorite movies in part because I don’t want to watch people die horribly.

So, okay, this book is a mismatch with me, fine. That happens and it’s no big deal. I mean, I could write a version of this book, and it would be full of questions like “What’s the most homoerotic look exchanged between supposedly straight women?” and “Which is the best One Single Tear of Manpain?” and “Which dude/dude kiss is best?” Serrano wouldn’t enjoy that book any more than I enjoyed his. We’re just not compatible when it comes to movies.

But. Now the hard part. There’s a footnote in this book where Serrano basically punched me directly in the gut.

(Spoiler cut for mentions of sexual assault.)

Here’s the thing: I know Serrano mostly from Twitter and his Ringer writing. I know he’s done some lovely things on Twitter. I tend to think of him as a Good Dude. I also know he’s extremely online. But in a footnote in this book, he says that right after they sent the book to be printed, one of the actors he mentions got fined for sexual harassment. And that made Serrano check to see if other actors he’d mentioned had been accused of sexual harassment, besides the SINGLE ONE he already knew about: Kevin Spacey.

And, yes, of course, a cursory google, which Serrano could have done at any point in his life or while writing the book, revealed to him that many of the actors he wrote about have been. He provides a list of five, all of whom I knew about, and most of whom I knew about before Me Too was a thing, because they’re absolutely FAMOUS for it. Serrano then hopes that there are not others he missed (uh, yeah, there are) and apologizes.

I read that and I thought about this extremely online guy who wrote an entire book about movies and just … did not know, and did not care enough to find out, about ANY sexual assaults the many actors he mentions have done (except, of course, the one assault that is palatable to him because the perpetrator is a gay man). Even though he was right there online during all of Me Too. And I realized, hey, this book is literally not for me. It’s not just a content mismatch, it's an exclusion. I’m not in Serrano’s mental audience. No woman is. Which was a painful thing to learn, given that I like the guy and I also like some of his writing.

The one part of this book that is genuinely good and interesting is the chapter where he does a thing The Ringer does and asks a bunch of people to answer the chapter’s question. Those essays, with their varied opinions, provide depth and breadth and perspective. And, also, some of them are by women. If he’d structured the whole book that way – well, at least he would maybe have had someone to nudge him and go, hey, dude, yeah, you can’t just google this stuff after the fact and then say “whoops, forgot, sorry!” in a footnote. (Someone might also have pointed out his repeated use of an ablist slur in the bonus ebook material.)

But this book isn’t written that way. And it apparently wasn’t written with female readers in mind at all. I wish very much I had known that going in. Would’ve saved me the gore and the plot summaries as well as the punch in the gut. show less

In many ways, Serrano's conversations about movies fall outside my focal zone: principally in treating films that don't in themselves interest me, but also by honing in on gee-whiz preoccupations I find more amusing than fascinating. Instance: interrogating Denzel Washington's "race-forward football camp" for its success in integrating players across racial-cultural divides. Serrano deliberately phrases the question as Washington's (and not belonging to the character Washington played in show more Remember the Titans), because his analysis extends to other movies in which actors appeared, to examine whether they were positively or negatively affected by their fictional experience in football camp.

And yet, the discussions are enriched when framed this way -- precisely because Serrano takes seriously the situations created in movies, and across movies, and proceeds to examine critically what it means for viewers to understand those situations and characters as presented on the screen. The implications are ridiculous if taken literally: Ethan Suplee's character in TItans evidently was relatively open-minded (I haven't screened the film myself), and has no bearing whatsoever on Suplee's character in American History X, a rabid and violent neo-Nazi. It makes little sense to pretend either Suplee or his characters are the same person across these movies, yet Serrano does just that: he argues Suplee's character in Titans becomes radicalized by the football camp, ending up the loathsome person we see later in History.

But Serrano does this knowingly, and it affords him the opportunity to examine many facets of film, from production history to screenplay adaptations, from critical & popular response to a comparison to historical events upon which the films were based. In effect, Serrano teases out various implications, many of them unintended or perhaps merely sidestepped by those involved in making the film, and puts them front & center. It pushes up some interesting questions about film, yes, but moreso about the world we live in, and in which the films were made. And that made it far more interesting to me than at first I anticipated it would. In the instance mentioned above, the point isn't so much Serrano's "conclusion" about Suplee's character, as it is the discussion prompted by the question, and the observations made along the way, about systemic racism and racist behavior exhibited by some people and opposed by others. The question is an amusing agent provocateur, and successfully flushed out some interesting observations.

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The only film I recall adding to my watch list is Booksmart. I've not yet screened it. show less

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S MOVIES (AND OTHER THINGS) ABOUT?
Serrano discusses movies from the point of view of a massive fan—he knows what he's talking about, he can discuss them objectively, critically, and as a fanboy—mostly a combination thereof. In this collection of essays, he approaches films of the mid-80s (largely) to today, answering burning questions such as:
* Who's the better tough guy movie dog owner? (Will Smith in Legend, Tom Hardy in The show more Drop, or Keanu Reeves in John Wick?)
* Which Movie had the more intense opening, Face/Off or Finding Nemo?
* When did you know Booksmart was special?
* Who's in the perfect heist movie crew
* Which race was white-saviored the best by Kevin Costner?
* When did Michael B. Jordan break your heart into the most pieces? (which was immediately followed by)
* When was Diane Keaton the most charming in Something's Gotta Give?

The mental whiplash between those last two shows the range that Serrano is capable of. He also ranks the deaths/trauma in the Kill Bill movies, discusses adjusting recent Academy Award nominations/wins after making sure Romantic Comedies are given their credit due, what movie villains would be fun to hang out with, and how an NBA post-game style press conference with Michael Myers would go.

There's a great combination of movie knowledge/insight, social commentary, and humor mixed throughout each of these. Even when it came to movies I've never seen, have no interest in seeing, or saw ages ago and don't remember well, Serrano kept me pretty engaged and entertained.*

* Except maybe with the Fast and the Furious discussion, I don't know why...I just can't care about this franchise.

A WORD ABOUT THE NARRATION
I've heard Serrano as a guest on podcasts, and would've assumed his natural ability, experience, and passion would've made him a natural to read his own audiobook. But for whatever reason, Mario Toscano got the nod instead.

And I can see why—I had no problem believing I was hearing Serrano himself read these (maybe if I'd pulled up a podcast to listen to first, that wouldn't have been true)—which is important when I'm hearing something so personal or passionate as this often is (see Black Nerd Problems, for example). Toscano sounds like a knowledgeable film geek going off on various topics—I think he could've put a little more energy into some of the quotations, but I'm sure there are good reasons for not doing that.

OHH, MAN...
While researching this post, I saw that the ebook has three additional exclusive chapters...I might have been able to resist, but one of the chapters is "When Was Hans Gruber's Subtlety the Most Threatening?"

So, I'm going to have to buy a print copy of this, too. I have to read this take.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MOVIES (AND OTHER THINGS)?
I had a blast with this—it's the equivalent of sitting around with a bunch of friends talking about movies for far too long, which is one of my favorite ways to spend a lot of time. Even when I think he was out to lunch or arbitrary in some of his choices, I could get behind them for the sake of argument or be entertained by them.

Man, I wish I knew where he came up with some of the topics. If I spent a year doing nothing more than coming up with the chapter titles (never mind the content), I couldn't be half this creative.

I didn't need anyone reminding me of Opie Winston's death scene— ever . But especially not in a book about movies where I didn't know to be emotionally prepared for such a thing. Serrano lost a star from me for that one.*

* Not really, but it was cathartic to say that.

That incredibly important quibble aside, if you're a current/former/would-be movie geek, grab this, you'll have a blast. show less

Would you like to read a story that's perfect for Christmas time but has no mention of Christmas at all and isn't even set during the holiday season? Try this one! It will warm the cockles of your heart.

This story tells us about Shea and Larami Serrano's wedding day in March 2007. They had been together for seven years and had been planning the wedding since fifteen months. However, just two days before the big day, Larami, who was four months pregnant, went into labour. What happens show more next?

If this were a novel, I'd have said that it is too good to be true, that the ending is way too perfect, that the characters are unrealistically sweet, that there are too many coincidences,...

But this isn't fiction!

As Neil Gaiman once said, 'Life is always going to be stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be convincing, and life doesn't.' And life truly pulled the rug from under the wedding plans of the Serranos. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going, right? (Note to self: What’s with all the clichés in this para!?)

Shea and Larami Serrano's story covers everything we love in romance stories: love, tragedy, comedy, emotions, suspense (just a little), and a happily-ever-after. I loved the couple's decision of writing this narrative in a 'He said, she said' format. It made the whole experience even better for me as I could actually picture them sitting in front of me and recounting what happened all those years ago.

Am I going to praise the couple about how they are so perfect for each other? No.
Will I gush over Shea for his understanding attitude towards Larami during that scary period? No.
Will I appreciate Larami for letting go of her brave façade and relying on her partner for strength? No.
Because these are things that every couple should be doing. These two shouldn't be treated as the exception but as the expectation. Every relationship ought to be like this, nurturing a mutually caring-and-sharing attitude in times both good and bad. Both of them just followed their heart and did the right thing for their relationship.

I'd have loved to read more about this sweet couple, but as this is just meant to be a story of their wedding, it serves its purpose well and stops just at that. The included wedding photo is a bonus.

Why did I call this a Christmas read? Simple! It represents everything that is truly Christmassy without the commercialisation – love, sacrifice, adjustment, waiting, kindness, patience, and celebration.

Strongly recommended. This beautiful anecdote will infuse that little bit of warmth in your chilly heart during this wintry season. (Unless if you are in the Southern hemisphere and tackling summer right now, in which case I'll say: ‘This beautiful anecdote will provide the right level of air-conditioning to your sweaty heart.’ show less