Something old, something new, something borrowed…

Today marks the rather subtle launch of The Hot Button Book Club.  I’m not looking to set the world afire,.  I’m sure not the next Oprah.  But it occurred to me that Amazon offered me a way to generate some income for this site AND to give those of you who put up with this column daily an opportunity to read the best of an overloaded movie book selection. 

The rules are simple.  I will not recommend a book that I haven’t read myself, though if there is a demand for it, I will eventually create a “THB Readers Recommend” section.  I will not recommend books that are popular just because they are popular – no Robert McKee here.  Some books are okay reads after you have read everything else.  But with a starting list of over 50 books, most of you will have a lot of work to do before you start reading the mediocre.  (I should probably include Syd Field, even though I believe that his book is best read for formatting and then thrown away before it infects you.) 

I’m sure that the list is missing some titles right off the bat and I will try to correct that in the days to come.  You will also find that many of the titles are out of print and only available used.  That might mean a $2.95 copy of William Goldman’s Hype & Glory or a $44 edition of Projections 2 (there are only four copies of that one available.)   Revenue for the site is good – and any Amazon shopping you do clicking through our site will generate a commission for us.  But the books are what is important.  As we learned last year, selling T-shirts – and I am sure, selling books – is not a major cash crop.

But I love good movie books.  You will notice when you look at the current library list that William Goldman owns the biggest slice of turf.  There is a reason for that.  Besides being a great screenwriter, he is one of the most undervalued pulp novelists in American history.  When you see a crappy movie like the version of Heat that Burt Reynolds puked out about in 1987, you should know that the Goldman novel that the movie was based on – not a novel based on a movie - is a terrific read and could be, some day, a terrific movie.  (Which put me in mind of Keith Gordon’s reinterpretation of Endless Love, Waking The Dead, which I love, but which no matter how it effects you, makes Zeffirelli’s version look like crap.) 

Goldman also wrote the best single book ever about the film world, taking a hard insider’s view of both the art and the commerce around which so much of his life is centered.   Most of you will already know that I am talking about Adventures in the Screen Trade.  Click here to read more about it and its sequel, What Lie Did I Tell?, on the Hot Button Recommends page.

If you all want, we can eventually set up discussion groups regarding suggested titles.  And there will be more suggested titles and descriptions.  To be honest, the task of reviewing all 50+ books at one time is just too daunting.  Also, I don’t want to overwhelm you.  On the other hand, it’s a lot cheaper to buy a few books at a time from Amazon – because of shipping – than it is to buy them one at a time.  So, there is also the full library list, that will be update regularly, until it is as complete as I want it ,,,  then it will update with each great new book that I read.  (Just thought of three new titles to add, just as I was writing this.) 

In any case, have at it.  We’ll probably add videos/DVDs and soundtracks as well, which we do get credit for now, if you click through our site to buy.  But most of all, I hope that you will join in the reading orgy.  There are some great books out there about a subject we all most obviously love.

THE LIZ WATCH:  I guess this needs to be a permanent feature of the column… who is shilling through Liz Smith this week?  Reading Smith is like reading really big tea leaves.  It is rare that Smith actually proffers an opinion generated from her professional Tin Man’s heart.  But she’s no Scarecrow either… she’s a smart cookie.  So when it comes time to shift perception, she is one of the best at telling it like it isn’t, while all the while making it seem like inspired buzz off the street.  Yesterday, the man behind the curtain was spinning Winona Ryder. 

After weeks of buzz about the fact that Ryder was a lot less apparent in the ad campaign for Mr. Deeds than you would expect from an above-the-title co-star – the first ever in an Adam Sandler star vehicle – and completely missing from the one-sheet and billboard campaign, now Winona is allegedly getting the credit for the big opening.  You know, it’s “the biggest hit she has been associated with since Bram Stoker's Dracula.”  Then, Liz let’s us know that “Suddenly her mailbox is full of scripts and messages asking Ryder to ‘take a meeting.’“ 

Oy!

You know, Hollywood execs can be idiots, but Liz Smith can’t possibly expect people to believe that they are THAT dumb, can she?  For whom in this business is Winona Ryder an unknown quantity?  And if anyone has decided that she has new heat, it probably is coming from her infamy – and accompanying cover stories – from the shoplifting accusation, which in this town makes her dark and dangerous and sexy again.  (I know, it’s sick.) 

The upcoming New Line release, Simone, which will not be winning any records at the box office, does offer a more realistic look at meetings with “fallen” starlets, embodied by Ryder herself, playing a character.  After she destroys a remarkably self-indulgent director’s career by being a petulant ass movie star, she comes crawling back after he has become a star maker.  She is suddenly and completely compliant.  And as soon as he has a bad turn, she is among the first to stick that knife back in his back again.  I’m not saying that Ryder is in any way like that character.  My point is that she has become a curiosity and that people in this town get bored with their curiosities quickly and cruelly.

Liz has a final salvo, which read like the words of a cruise ship hypnotist, getting Drunken Gal From Missouri to bark like a dog; “If Hollywood can forgive Robert Downey Jr.'s drug excesses, Winona's embarrassing forgetfulness (if that's what it was) while shopping won't kill her career.”  Uh, no.  Robert Downey, Jr. hasn’t been forgiven by Hollywood.  He has some very powerful, very committed supporters who identify personally with Downey’s struggles with drugs.   If he succeeds in recovery, they succeed.  And there’s nothing wrong with that. 

If Winona wants that kind of support, she will get it if she admits that she was shoplifting (if she was) and asks the world for help.  She has already been drop-kicked into freak class and there is no turning back this decade.  Sorry.  Nothing since the arrest has worked.  Saturday Night Live was good, but she followed it up with a bench warrant and a clipped wing.  And while her attorney, Mark Geragos is probably doing the best thing for Ryder legally, he has done her no favors by not offering a more aggressive defense.  He nearly destroyed her by publicly claiming to have receipts for everything she was caught stealing… which turned out not to be the case. 

Of course, the biggest story here, still untold, is why Saks called the cops in the first place.  This is not your father’s Hollywood.  Even if some underling called the cops, Saks could have dropped the matter for a customer who spends thousands in their store, even if she does, allegedly, pick up a few freebies along the way.  More so, how many celebrities do you think are spending more at Barney’s and less at Saks just to avoid being watched as they shop?  Ryder must have been willing to cough up for the merchandise after she was caught… what happened at Saks?  Tell that story to Liz and maybe you can buy some real sympathy.

DVD AHOY!:  Yesterday was one of the greatest days ever for DVD fans.  Besides the new release of Amelie, an instant classic from last year, there are four great old movies finally hitting the racks.  If you haven’t seen James Coburn in the classic Bond parodies that eventually became Bond reality -  with Roger Moore’s License to Kill -  Our Man Flint and In Like Flint, I couldn’t recommend them more highly.  I grew up on these films, which were played over and over on local TV in Miami.  Like Yvonne Craig in a plastic batsuit, these were very pre-pubescent sexy.  But they are also funny and smart.  And Coburn is just great.  If you’d prefer your Austin Powers with fewer freaks and less hit-in-the-balls humor, you’ll love these films.

Top Secret is one of Val Kilmer’s best movie star movies.  It’s right up there with Real Genius, both as terrific comedies and as underappreciated films.  There was no way that Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker could top Airplane.  And certainly not with a lot of jokes that were based on movies that their audience had never seen… WWII potboilers.  But this is a genuinely funny film that plays even better with multiple viewings. 

Finally, a film that I consider a true romantic classic, Richard Lester and James Goldman’s Robin and Marian, arrives on DVD.  If you want to know about this film, start with the cast; Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, Nicol Williamson, Denholm Elliot, Ronnie Barker, Ian Holm and one I hadn’t even realized until I read it… a 17-year-old Victoria Abril, the great and sexy Spanish actress, as Queen Isabella  

The story is grand… Robin Hood and the gang grow up and grow old.  But they still have one last adventure left in their old bones… they still have a romantic need to honor love.  Sean Connery, then just 46, has had one of the greatest mature careers in the history of film because he has found roles like this that acknowledge his age and still allow him to be a man, through and through.  After seeing Harrison Ford’s latest disaster film, one realizes how desperate aging movie stars are for just this kind of material.  (let’s just hope that Spielberg and Lucas and Darabont are as kind to Ford in Indy 4 as they were to Connery in Indy 3.)  But Ford seems to have a nose for these rare, rare slots… Highlander, The Untouchables, Rising Sun, The Rock, Entrapment, Finding Forrester… if not all home runs as films, certainly home runs for Connery.

There are other delights around each and every corner of this film… if you like a good romp that has elements of tear-jerking romance.  Hepburn is an angel.  Robert Shaw is one of the all-time greats… God, he was something… along with Oliver Reed… where are the great heavies of this generation?  A young Nicol Williamson and all the great U.K. actors that Richard Lester gathered… just glorious.  (And you can read more about the film in a great THB Library book, Getting Away With It, Steven Soderbergh’s diary/conversation with Richard Lester.  Click here to find out more about it or to buy it right off.)

I’m not the biggest DVD guy.  But four films that deserve a place on my bookshelf in one day… that a good day.

READER OF THE DAY:  An insight into one part of Minority Report from John English:  “As a guy in IT, I can see why Anderton's eyes still haven't been disabled. Sometimes people just forget to call IT.  They probably never imagined Anderton would try to break back in.  Maybe after they caught him and locked

him, they notified their IT department, but the accounts guy sat on it because he knew Anderton was locked up.  No rush to disable his account; he ain't going anywhere.  Maybe Tim Blake Nelson was in charge of IT too.  I can really see his character sitting on it.”

And The ZB Special takes on yesterday’s ROTD, item for item, spoiler for spoiler… so again, IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN MINORITY REPORT OR ROAD TO PERDITION, BEWARE!!!! 

SPOILERS AHOY!!!

“When Anderton's stuff is returned to him ,we only see the gun. For all we know, he may have left them with his wife at her house when he heard the Pre-Crime team coming.

It's possible that Burgess' office is in the same building as Pre-Crime and the Containment Unit.

Since we don't see Anderton accessing the prision earlier in the movie with his eyes, it's safe to assume that you don't need them at all.

Anderton's sweatshirt was in the box of stuff. Also he was able to get into the building where the conference is because it's the same building where the prisoners were kept! He remains in the basement until he has to go outside.

I've seen the movie three times and I swear that Anderton calls his buddy and orders him to transmit the footage.

The explanation is more for the audience than for Burgess. Although it is possible that Anderton could have what he is saying patched into the sound system.

Since that footage is all that Agatha has of her mother, it's either that or nothing at all to remember her by. It may be painful but it's all she has. 

As for RTP, the soundtrack was wonderful. While it didn't sound like American Beauty's in some respect, it had a livelier feel to it.

We really don't know that much about any of the characters, so to single out Jennifer Jason Leigh's is stupid. I did enjoy the shot where her and Tom look at each other when the youngest son asks what Dad does.

When you're twelve, no matter what your dad does, you're always going to remember the good things about it and dwell on that instead of the bad.

As for the Catholic iconography, it's there to show that this gangster included religion in his life. He is probably one of the once on Sunday and let's call it good group.

If I remember correctly, Ricky Fitts only took video footage of a dead homeless woman once and he remember it being like looking into the face of God itself.

Michael Sullivan kills because he has to and Sam Mende's shows him doing it in a cold and efficient manner. We only see the results of Jude Law's in their full glory because he takes pleasure in killing. We need to see what it is that makes him so gleeful.

I think I may have tried to redirect Basher shakily at best, but I tried my hardest. These two films are the best I've seen this year by far, and I felt I had to defend them.”

E ME:  Start recommending books…And what does it take to get you to forgive a celebrity… or do they need forgiveness at all?