RE: A Year at the Movies: One Man's Filmgoing Odyssey By: Kevin Murphy
A Book that I Have Been Thinking About
From: Travis
June 27, 2020
#BooksAboutMovies
While I really enjoyed this book, I will state upfront that I am especially biased in this case. Not only was I a fan of Mr. Murphy from his work on MST3k and RiffTrax, but the year he chose to devote to the movies (2001) was an important year for me in regards to my interest in film.
Reading thru it was an odd kind of double-nostalgia, not only for the author's voice, but also the time-capsule descriptions of the film industry at the beginning of the millennium. This was right at the time I was finishing up high school -- I could finally drive myself to the theater, had a little bit of extra spending cash (thanks to a job at Blockbuster), and a plethora of free time to devote to new releases, so I was heavily invested in watching movies, either on the big screen, from my free rentals at BB, or via the nascent NetFlix service.
I wasn't surprised to find Mr Murphy's writing to be funny and entertaining, but was a bit taken aback to realize how much of a movie lover he was/is -- I guess that side of his personality never really got a chance to present itself while he was ripping into cheesy B movies on Sci-Fi. His passion (snobbery?) is evident in his critiques of mainstream, big studio films, arthouse and foreign flicks, film festivals, chain megaplexes and remote film houses alike.
The book also reminded me just how big a year 2001 was for film in general. The year saw the first Harry Potter, the first Lord of the Rings, Memento, O Brother Where Art Thou, Amelie, Snatch, Chicken Run, Shrek, AI, The Royal Tannenbaums, Mullholland Drive, Monsters Inc, and even Corky Romano. Getting a take on these when they were still fresh was interesting, especially on the ones that are less popular now.
I would recommend this to any fan of films in general as the critiques themselves are worth reading; but I would especially recommend the book to those in my age group and/or fans of MST3k, for the extra dose of nostalgia.