Rent Truffaut’s Day for Night instead.
Identical twins make movie, write boring book about the experience.
“The Bros,” as they refer to themselves, recount their struggle to produce a feature film honoring the life of their father, a homeless alcoholic who died alone in jail. The baseball-players-turned-neophyte-moviemakers had a rough time, learning on the job as they struggled to find financing, negotiate with bureaucrats for permits and deal with inclement weather and skittish actors. They generally flailed about in the manner familiar to viewers of Project Greenlight or any of the myriad films about the difficulties of making films. The authors aren’t covering any new ground here, and the crises threatening the completion of their cinematic roman-a-clef—Touching Home, a title to chill discerning moviegoers’ blood if ever there was one—are decidedly low stakes. Compared to such infamous production snafus as Martin Sheen’s heart attack on the set of Apocalypse Now, the Millers’ picayune setbacks—crewmembers turning up late, equipment malfunctioning, money being mismanaged—fail to generate much drama. Much of the story centers around their successful campaign to secure modest movie star Ed Harris as the lead in their film. If Harris had been a raging diva given to outrageous behavior, there might have been a story here; as it stands, the authors’ effusive paeans to his professionalism and integrity quickly pall. Strangely, the Bros don’t discuss their baseball careers (apparently central to the film’s narrative), their cinematic inspirations, their feelings about acting and directing with no prior experience or Touching Home’s place in the tradition of baseball-themed male weepies. They are content to tell a few mild anecdotes, praise the cast and crew and lament the sad end of their father’s life. This pleasant, bland chronicle of a wearyingly familiar subject provides little of interest for anyone beyond the authors’ immediate circle.
Rent Truffaut’s Day for Night instead.Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-06-176314-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Collins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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