Movie Freak: My Life Watching Movies

by Owen Gleiberman

Overview

Entertainment Weekly's controversial critic of more than two decades looks back at a life told through the films he loved and loathed.

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 Rosemary's Baby when he was a wide-eyed 9 year old, then as a possessed cinemaniac who became a film critic right out of college. In Movie Freak, 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.

Gleiberman paints a bittersweet portrait of his complicated and ultimately doomed friendship with Pauline Kael, the legendary New Yorker 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 The Boston Phoenix and then, starting in 1990, at EW, where he becomes a voice of obsession battling-to a fault-to cling to his independence.

Gleiberman explores the movies that shaped him, from the films that first made him want to be a critic (Nashville and Carrie), to what he hails as the sublime dark trilogy of the 1980s (Blue Velvet, Sid and Nancy, and Manhunter), to the scruffy humanity of Dazed and Confused, to the brilliant madness of Natural Born Killers, to the transcendence of Breaking the Waves, to the pop rapture of Moulin Rouge! He 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.

Ultimately, Movie Freak 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316382953
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	01/03/2017
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic. He wrote for the Boston Phoenix and is best known as the founding movie writer for the then-startup Entertainment Weekly, where he was the lead critic for twenty-four years. Today Gleiberman continues to write for BBC.com and lives in New York City with his wife Sharon and two daughters.

What People are Saying About This

Peter Biskind

MOVIE FREAK mixes ideas and autobiography in a totally riveting way. Smart, gossipy, and entertaining, it's a flashback to a time when movies mattered and an insider's look at how that moment ended. --Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Kurt Loder

Owen Gleiberman may be the most consistently perceptive of our big-league movie critics, and MOVIE FREAK is filled with his provocative judgments. (Kurosawa, Godard, even Welles — these guys sometimes suck, right?) But Gleiberman also opens up his own life to lay bare issues of love and death and dreams and desire. He provides an insider's tour of the shark-tank New York media world, and more sex and drugs and rock and roll than you might possibly expect. This isn't just one of the most fascinating books of its kind — it's a new kind altogether. --Kurt Loder, author of The Good, the Bad and the Godawful and movie reviewer for Reason.com

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2015
Gleiberman, former film critic for the Boston Phoenix and Entertainment Weekly, often strays from the path in this spry but uneven memoir. His description of losing his “cinematic virginity” at a drive-in showing of Rosemary’s Baby is an endearing passage. The excitement he remembers feeling after seeing Carrie and Nashville for the first time is infectious, as is the thrill when he met his idol, New Yorker critic Pauline Kael. But once Gleiberman starts working at the Phoenix and, later, EW, the narrative devolves into a series of publication turf wars and feuds with a series of editors. There are some valid points about the work of film criticism, such as the importance of going against the mainstream and the critic’s function in marketing, alongside too many observations that read like ax grinding against his former employers. Gleiberman’s recollection of his friendship with Oliver Stone yields little insight, and his descriptions of junkets and film festivals are far too self-involved. When Gleiberman actually writes about movies, his book clicks, but his professional triumphs and travails won’t interest non-devotees of film criticism. Agent: Erin Hosier, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Owen Gleiberman may be the most consistently perceptive of our big-league movie critics, and Movie Freak is filled with his provocative judgments. (Kurosawa, Godard, even Welles - these guys sometimes suck, right?) But Gleiberman also opens up his own life to lay bare issues of love and death and dreams and desire. He provides an insider's tour of the shark-tank New York media world, and more sex and drugs and rock and roll than you might possibly expect. This isn't just one of the most fascinating books of its kind - it's a new kind altogether."—Kurt Loder, author of The Good, the Bad and the Godawful and movie reviewer for Reason.com

"Owen Gleiberman's Movie Freak is a chronicle of rapture-the progression of a shy Midwestern boy, vibrating to images and sounds, who searches for his voice and his vocation in drive-in movie theaters, in shock and pornography, in Pauline Kael's prose, and finally in art (Carrie, Nashville, etc.). He becomes a full-fledged movie critic facing the competitive furies of New York journalism, where he remains devoted to an essential critical creed: Trust your pleasure. The book is exuberant and candid, a celebration of appetite, an essential, turned-on guide to American pop culture in the last forty years."—David Denby, The New Yorker

"Film has devolved rather than evolved since the days of Pauline Kael, one of the major influences named by Owen Gleiberman in his fascinating memoir Movie Freak. Film criticism isn't something just anyone can or should do. Gleiberman takes us a journey inside the life and mind that built one of the best film critics around. His careful assessment of his own place in film criticism, his observations of his own influences - and perhaps, biases - make a good case that he is one of the few good writers, and good minds, evaluating films. Reading Movie Freak reminded me how much more we need of Owen Gleiberman and less of everything else that film criticism has become. I've been following his reviews for almost twenty years so it's no wonder it was such a pleasure reading about what helped formed him as a writer, a critic and a man."—Sasha Stone, publisher of www.awardsdaily.com

"MOVIE FREAK is a blast....Part autobiography, part magazine-industry tell-all and part love letter to movies, the book feels like a long, wide-ranging conversation with Gleiberman.... elegant, insightful, funny and provocative. Gleiberman remains one of the most astute and pleasurable film writers of the last 30 years....This funny, frank book is filled with irresistible digressions on movies."—Miami Herald

With Movie Freak, Owen Gleiberman reminds us why he's remained one of the most incisive American critics working today. Pairing his burgeoning romance with motion pictures alongside various private and professional developments, he delivers a bracing cultural history of American movies through the intimate lens of his personal experiences. Along the way, he explores the subtle forces that contribute to the development of sharp, provocative opinions about cinema, art and life itself, illustrating that process through his typically engrossing prose and individualistic stances. Yet Movie Freak deepens its cause by extending beyond the limited arena of American film culture to capture its impact on Gleiberman's maturation as a human being. This is a coming of age drama as moving and profound as the big screen achievements that inspired its author.—Eric Kohn, Indiewire

"Movie Freak mixes ideas and autobiography in a totally riveting way. Smart, gossipy, and entertaining, it's a flashback to a time when movies mattered and an insider's look at how that moment ended."—Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

"A chronicle of his love affair with films...a story of societal change, rich in cultural as well as personal history."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Owen Gleiberman's MOVIE FREAK is a chronicle of rapture—the progression of a shy Midwestern boy, vibrating to images and sounds, who searches for his voice and his vocation in drive-in movie theaters, in shock and pornography, in Pauline Kael's prose, and finally in art (Carrie, Nashville, etc.). He becomes a full-fledged movie critic facing the competitive furies of New York journalism, where he remains devoted to an essential critical creed: Trust your pleasure. The book is exuberant and candid, a celebration of appetite, an essential, turned-on guide to American pop culture in the last forty years.

The New Yorker - David Denby

With MOVIE FREAK, Owen Gleiberman reminds us why he's remained one of the most incisive American critics working today. Pairing his burgeoning romance with motion pictures alongside various private and professional developments, he delivers a bracing cultural history of American movies through the intimate lens of his personal experiences. Along the way, he explores the subtle forces that contribute to the development of sharp, provocative opinions about cinema, art and life itself, illustrating that process through his typically engrossing prose and individualistic stances. Yet MOVIE FREAK deepens its cause by extending beyond the limited arena of American film culture to capture its impact on Gleiberman's maturation as a human being. This is a coming of age drama as moving and profound as the big screen achievements that inspired its author.

Indiewire - Eric Kohn

Film has devolved rather than evolved since the days of Pauline Kael, one of the major influences named by Owen Gleiberman in his fascinating memoir MOVIE FREAK. Film criticism isn't something just anyone can or should do. Gleiberman takes us a journey inside the life and mind that built one of the best film critics around. His careful assessment of his own place in film criticism, his observations of his own influences - and perhaps, biases - make a good case that he is one of the few good writers, and good minds, evaluating films. Reading MOVIE FREAK reminded me how much more we need of Owen Gleiberman and less of everything else that film criticism has become. I've been following his reviews for almost twenty years so it's no wonder it was such a pleasure reading about what helped formed him as a writer, a critic and a man.

awardsdaily.com - Sasha Stone

12/01/2015
What defines a great film critic? For Gleiberman, it is having an insatiable appetite for movies, a keen eye, and an unwavering commitment to one's opinion. In this title, he turns the same critical eye to his own life that he cultivated as lead movie critic at Entertainment Weekly. Gleiberman discovered the transformative power of movies as a child in Ann Arbor, MI. During his college newspaper internship, he wrote a fan letter to famed film critic Pauline Kael that led to a position reviewing films at The Boston Phoenix. While recounting the important movies in his life, Gleiberman shares some of the sharp insights that make him a standout and polarizing figure. However, this book also defines the man in front of the screen, the self-proclaimed "freak," his cold relationship with his late father, an obsession with porn, a stunted love life, and workplace rivalries. In addition, the author provides a front-seat view of the changes that entertainment journalism has suffered as a result of the Internet and the 2008 financial crisis. VERDICT Film and journalism buffs will be equally served by this revealing and ardent memoir of a life lived in images and words.—Amanda Westfall, Emmet O'Neal P.L., Mountain Brook, AL

Library Journal

Film critic Owen Gleiberman narrates his memoir with a candidness that reinforces the frankness of his writing. His tone is serious but intellectually lively as he explores his early film obsessions and the development of his career, much of which he spent as the lead film critic at ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. Gleiberman is better at talking about movies than people, or interacting with them, for that matter, but he earns listeners’ empathy by not equivocating or rationalizing his behavior. Gleiberman contrasts the stages of his life with a chronicle of cultural changes, bringing emotions ranging from anger to acceptance to his account of the rise of the Internet and its impact on criticism and media as a whole. Thought-provoking listening for fans of film and pop culture. A.F. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

MAY 2016 - AudioFile

2015-11-04
A veteran movie critic for Entertainment Weekly debuts with a chronicle of his love affair with films, his long career at EW (before they laid him off in 2014), and his gnarly love life (until his marriage). For much of his life, Gleiberman was fortunate. He was able to spend most of his days doing what he loved: seeing and commenting on the movies. His career received a jump-start when, in his 20s, the redoubtable New Yorker critic Pauline Kael became interested in him and helped him get his first job with the Boston Phoenix. The paper fired him, but not long afterward, EW, a new Time-Life publication, hired him. Gleiberman describes his uncomfortable life with his father—for whom wedding vows of fidelity were only a suggestion—his nerdy social isolation as a film freak, his drug and alcohol use, and his uncomfortable, cringe-inducing confessions about his years at EW as a hustler of young women around the office. He pauses often for commentary about films, directors, and performers he liked (and didn't), is generally kind to his colleagues (not always: Amy Taubin and Peter Travers take some Gleiberman guff), and fiercely defends his dislike for some films that were extraordinarily popular, including Pretty Woman and The Fellowship of the Ring. Throughout, the author's prose style is conversational, even colloquial. At the end, he writes affectingly of the slow disappearance of newspapers and of print film criticism ("the case for why it matters cannot be made in practical terms") and the surge of a kind of mass homogenization of cultural opinion that he finds depressing—and irreversible. Sad, too, is his account of his slow slide at EW, beginning with the elevation of Lisa Schwarzbaum to be his featured equal and ending with the word that the magazine would be moving in a new direction. A story of societal change, rich in cultural as well as personal history.

Kirkus Reviews