Life Moves Pretty Fast

Life Moves Pretty Fast
Author: Hadley Freeman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1501130455

"An earlier edition of this work was published in Great Britain in 2015."--Title page verso.

'80s Action Movies on the Cheap

'80s Action Movies on the Cheap
Author: Daniel R. Budnik
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2017-03-21
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476626871

The 1980s was the decade when the action film as it's now known came into being. Nonstop, big-budget excitement became the standard as epic adventures like Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Road Warrior set the tone for the summer blockbusters of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris. Homages (and ripoffs) made with lesser budgets followed every hit, especially with the advent of direct-to-video releases. Providing detailed commentary on 284 films, this book explores the excitement, audacity and sheer weirdness of '80s low budget action cinema, from the American Ninja series to dime-a-dozen barbarian pictures to such bargain-basement productions as The Courier of Death, Kill Squad and Samurai Cop.

Films of Endearment

Films of Endearment
Author: Michael Koresky
Publisher: Harlequin
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1488078351

An Esquire Best Book About Hollywood A USA TODAY Best Book of 2021 “A lovely and loving book.”—Will Schwalbe, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Your Life Book Club "I'm not sure I have ever read a book about movies that is as tender and open-hearted as Films of Endearment."—Mark Harris, New York Times bestselling author of Mike Nichols: A Life A poignant memoir of family, grief and resilience about a young man, his dynamic mother and the '80s movies they shared together Michael Koresky's most formative memories were simple ones. A movie rental. A mug of tea. And a few shared hours with his mother. Years later and now a successful film critic, Koresky set out on a journey with his mother to discover more about their shared cinematic past. They rewatched ten films that she first introduced to him as a child, one from every year of the '80s, each featuring women leads. Together, films as divergent as 9 to 5, Terms of Endearment, The Color Purple and Aliens form the story of an era that Koresky argues should rightly be called "The Decade of the Actress." Films of Endearment is a reappraisal of the most important and popular female-driven films of that time, a profound meditation on loss and resilience, and a celebration of the special bond between mothers and their sons.

Problematic Movies of the 80's

Problematic Movies of the 80's
Author: Don Hall
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2020-08-15
Genre:
ISBN:

After Brett Kavanaugh referenced "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" as a cultural landmark in his sexual assaulting youth and the realization that I am exactly the same age as the SCOTUS justice, it was time to go back and revisit fourteen comedies from the 1980's to see which hold up in the cultural shift of 2020.Includes breakdowns of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Stripes," "Revenge of the Nerds," and "Weird Science" plus ten more you might remember.

Make My Day

Make My Day
Author: J. Hoberman
Publisher: The New Press
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2019-07-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1620971003

Named a Best Book of the Year by Financial Times "Singular, stylish and slightly intoxicating in its scope." —Rolling Stone Acclaimed media critic J. Hoberman's masterful and majestic exploration of the Reagan years as seen through the unforgettable movies of the era The third book in a brilliant and ambitious trilogy, celebrated cultural and film critic J. Hoberman's Make My Day is a major new work of film and pop culture history. In it he chronicles the Reagan years, from the waning days of the Watergate scandal when disaster films like Earthquake ruled the box office to the nostalgia of feel-good movies like Rocky and Star Wars, and the delirium of the 1984 presidential campaign and beyond. Bookended by the Bicentennial celebrations and the Iran-Contra affair, the period of Reagan's ascendance brought such movie events as Jaws, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Ghostbusters, Blue Velvet, and Back to the Future, as well as the birth of MTV, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the Second Cold War. An exploration of the synergy between American politics and popular culture, Make My Day is the concluding volume of Hoberman's Found Illusions trilogy; the first volume, The Dream Life, was described by Slate's David Edelstein as "one of the most vital cultural histories I've ever read"; Film Comment called the second, An Army of Phantoms, "utterly compulsive reading." Reagan, a supporting player in Hoberman's previous volumes, here takes center stage as the peer of Indiana Jones and John Rambo, the embodiment of a Hollywood that, even then, no longer existed.

LIFE Movies of the 1980s

LIFE Movies of the 1980s
Author: The Editors of LIFE
Publisher: Time Inc. Books
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2017-10-27
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1547840072

Travel back to the future with dozens of 1980s favorites Before the internet, in the days of Rubik's Cubes, the Iran-Contra scandal, and Wall Street's booms and busts, movies captured the spirit of our times. Now you can revisit those great films with LIFE Movies of the 1980s, packed with glowing photos and behind-the-scenes stories from the pages of Life magazine.

Searching for John Hughes

Searching for John Hughes
Author: Jason Diamond
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2016-11-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 006242484X

Searching for John Hughes is Jason Diamond’s hilarious memoir of growing up obsessed with the iconic filmmaker’s movies. From the outrageous, raunchy antics in National Lampoon’s Vacation to the teenage angst in The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink to the insanely clever and unforgettable Home Alone, Jason Diamond could not get enough of John Hughes’ films. So, he set off on a years-long delusional, earnest, and assiduous quest to write a biography of his favorite filmmaker, despite having no qualifications, training, background, platform, or direction. In Searching for John Hughes, Jason tells how a Jewish kid from a broken home in a Chicago suburb—sometimes homeless, always restless—found comfort and connection in the likewise broken lives in the suburban Chicago of John Hughes’ oeuvre. He moved to New York to become a writer of a book he had no business writing. In the meantime, he brewed coffee and guarded cupcake cafes. All the while, he watched John Hughes movies religiously. Though his original biography of Hughes has long since been abandoned, Jason has discovered he is a writer through and through. And the adversity of going for broke has now been transformed into wisdom. Or, at least, a really, really good story. In other words, this is a memoir of growing up. One part big dream, one part big failure, one part John Hughes movies, one part Chicago, and one part New York. It’s a story of what comes after the “Go for it!” part of the command to young creatives to pursue their dreams—no matter how absurd they might seem at first.

The Films of the Eighties

The Films of the Eighties
Author: William J. Palmer
Publisher: SIU Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 1995
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780809320295

In this remarkable sequel to his Films of the Seventies: A Social History, William J. Palmer examines more than three hundred films as texts that represent, revise, parody, comment upon, and generate discussion about major events, issues, and social trends of the eighties. Palmer defines the dialectic between film art and social history, taking as his theoretical model the "holograph of history" that originated from the New Historicist theories of Hayden White and Dominick LaCapra. Combining the interests and methodologies of social history and film criticism, Palmer contends that film is a socially conscious interpreter and commentator upon the issues of contemporary social history. In the eighties, such issues included the war in Vietnam, the preservation of the American farm, terrorism, nuclear holocaust, changes in Soviet-American relations, neoconservative feminism, and yuppies. Among the films Palmer examines are Platoon, The Killing Fields, The River, Out of Africa, Little Drummer Girl, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Silkwood, The Day After, Red Dawn, Moscow on the Hudson, Troop Beverly Hills, and Fatal Attraction. Utilizing the principles of New Historicism, Palmer demonstrates that film can analyze and critique history as well as present it.

The Best 80s Movies

The Best 80s Movies
Author: Helen O'Hara
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2018-10-04
Genre: Motion pictures
ISBN: 9781787391840

The Best 80s Moviesis the ultimate guide to all things retro, taking you on a nostaligic trip through the 80s. The aim is to review all your favourite films, the ones that have stood the test of time and popularity... and a few that haven't (Ewoks: Caravan of Courageanyone?). As well as in-depth discussions of the best films of the decade, it dissects other significant cinematic aspects of the era, such as the decade's most quotable lines, the stars that made the 80s what it was and the music that we're all still humming. It's the definitive guide to the most fun, most lasting movies of one of the richest decades cinema has ever seen.

Movies of the 80s

Movies of the 80s
Author: Jürgen Müller
Publisher: Taschen
Total Pages: 878
Release: 2002
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9783822817377

This book's 140 A-Z entries include synopses, film stills, and production photos.