A Year at the Movies by Kevin Murphy

Cafe Society
1

I don’t know how long this book has been out; I just saw it the other night and picked up a copy and am now about halfway through it.

The premise is: last year Kevin Murphy (from Mystery Science Theater 3000) pledged to see at least one movie, in a public venue (e.g. no home video), every day for an entire year. The book is divided into one chapter per week, each with a theme for the week or talking about the most noteworthy movie-going experience of that week. Now, I’ll buy just about anything even tangentially related to MST3K, so I snapped up the book as soon as I saw it. But I have to say I’ve been pretty disappointed so far.

Part of my problem is with the approach – the book is about the act of going to the movies more than the movies themselves, and there’s only so much of interest you can write about that. The name of every movie is listed, but a large majority of them aren’t even mentioned other than that. I would’ve enjoyed reading another opinion of a movie like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which I loved but Murphy barely mentions. Granted, there’s not much to be said about many of the movies on the list, and a book full of 365 capsule reviews would’ve been tiresome. But so far, the book just seems to keep getting right up to where it’s going to talk about something interesting and then veering off on a tangent or rant, and it’s frustrating.

The bigger problem, though, is that I just don’t like Kevin Murphy. It’s to his credit as a writer that his personality comes through; it’s not a book of capsule reviews or a bland journal of going to the movies. It’s also not hidden behind a layer of irony or hyperbole for comedic effect, like Michael Nelson’s essays can be, as funny as they are. Murphy’s book is very opinionated and conversational in tone. The downside to that, though, is if you don’t like him then you’re stuck in a 200+ page conversation with somebody you really would rather not talk to. He spends chapters railing against the pretentious people at Sundance, the pretentious people at Cannes, the evils of the Megaplex, but he doesn’t really bring up anything new. It’s kind of like spending chapters writing, “Boy, Britney Spears music sure does suck, right? I mean, it really sucks!”

And it seems a little hypocritical for him to go on about pretentious people when he writes stuff like:

It’s a valid point, and I agree with it, but I can’t help but wish that it weren’t written so smarmily. I just can’t get into reading an entire book with the voice of Tom Servo; maybe it’s just me. And I should say that when he does drop the Cinema Studies speak and just go for the laughs, they always fall kind of dead.

So I know there are plenty of other MSTie Dopers – anybody else get the book? What’d you think, sirs?

2

If you didn’t like the book, return it.

I thought it was often funny, sometimes touching, and often quite incisive.

I have loaned out my copy, and will reread it when I get it back.

3

So I’m not allowed to post my opinion on it? I thought this was a discussion board.

I wouldn’t have gone on so long about it unless I expected a range of opinions, instead of just “Fine, BE that way.”

4

The purpose of the book is it is not a book of file reviews. but a book about the movie going experience, what it is like as an ordinary person going, how theaters have changed in these days of video.

5

I did not say that you could not have or post an opinion.

I showed you mine.

You could stand to relax and not take it so bloody personally.

6

I’ve just started reading this book. Although I have absolutely nothing to base this on, I feel that Kevin Murphy, who is quite talented, will one day write I AM NOT SERVO.

7

Actually, Hastur, your opinion “sounded” kinda haughty, IMO.

8

SolGrundy - 1
Hastur - 0

9

I appreciate that. And it does bug me whenever a critic gives a book or movie a bad review not based on its content but on what they’d expected the book or movie to be. But I still think that there’s a lot of potential in there to go deeper into exactly how googleplexes are evil, or why the Sundance Festival has turned into a corruption of what it was intended. It seems that Murphy assumes that you agree with him about a topic from the start, and then complains (or gushes) about it without ever going deeper into why he feels the way he does.

That’s the other thing; it may just be my anti-Servo bias showing. After watching MST3K for so many years that I quote it without realizing it, it’s kind of weird for me to see all the “solo” work. I keep seeing phrases and such in Murphy’s book that I recognize from the show, and now whenever I watch an episode of MST3K it feels like “Kevin wrote that bit,” or “Mike wrote that.”

10

If you think Hastur expressed himself poorly, you should say so, but it’s absurd to think he wants you shut up. He’s not a moderator. Just because he disagrees with you doesn’t mean he wants you muted.