{"product_id":"book-bs4n","title":"Movie Freak","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly's \u003c\/i\u003econtroversial critic of more than two decades looks back at a life told through the films he loved and loathed.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Owen Gleiberman has spent his life watching movies-first at the drive-in, where his parents took him to see wildly inappropriate adult fare like \u003ci\u003eRosemary's Baby\u003c\/i\u003e when he was a wide-eyed 9 year old, then as a possessed cinemaniac who became a film critic right out of college. In \u003ci\u003eMovie Freak\u003c\/i\u003e, his enthrallingly candid, funny, and eye-opening memoir, Gleiberman captures what it's like to live life through the movies, existing in thrall to a virtual reality that becomes, over time, more real than reality itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gleiberman paints a bittersweet portrait of his complicated and ultimately doomed friendship with Pauline Kael, the legendary \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e film critic who was his mentor and muse. He also offers an unprecedented inside look at what the experience of being a critic is really all about, detailing his stint at \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Phoenix\u003c\/i\u003e and then, starting in 1990, at \u003ci\u003eEW\u003c\/i\u003e, where he becomes a voice of obsession battling-to a fault-to cling to his independence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Gleiberman explores the movies that shaped him, from the films that first made him want to be a critic (\u003ci\u003eNashville\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCarrie\u003c\/i\u003e), to what he hails as the sublime dark trilogy of the 1980s (\u003ci\u003eBlue Velvet\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSid and Nancy\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eManhunter\u003c\/i\u003e), to the scruffy humanity of \u003ci\u003eDazed and Confused,\u003c\/i\u003e to the brilliant madness of \u003ci\u003eNatural Born Killers,\u003c\/i\u003e to the transcendence of \u003ci\u003eBreaking the Waves,\u003c\/i\u003e to the pop rapture of \u003ci\u003eMoulin Rouge! \u003c\/i\u003eHe explores his partnership with Lisa Schwarzbaum and his friendships and encounters with such figures as Oliver Stone, Russell Crowe, Richard Linklater, and Ben Affleck. He also writes with confessional intimacy about his romantic relationships and how they echoed the behavior of his bullying, philandering father. And he talks about what film criticism is becoming in the digital age: a cacophony of voices threatened by an insidious new kind of groupthink.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Ultimately, \u003ci\u003eMovie Freak\u003c\/i\u003e is about the primal pleasure of film and the enigmatic dynamic between critic and screen. For Gleiberman, the moving image has a talismanic power, but it also represents a kind of sweet sickness, a magnificent obsession that both consumes and propels him.","brand":"Hachette Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49349652513072,"sku":"BDbs4n","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49349652545840,"sku":"ZEbs4n","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/530149-bs4n-Square.jpg?v=1734258271","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-bs4n","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}